This just in from the Department of Redundancy Department
State Report: Texas Has Too Many Reports
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 29, 2007
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- State agencies issue too many reports, a new 668-page report says.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission spent 18 months and canvassed more than 170 agencies and public colleges and universities, checking on all the reports they are assigned to do.
The commission found more than 1,600, and state records administrator Michael Heskett is pretty sure his team hasn't found them all.
Heskett's initial findings indicate more than 400 report requirements are obsolete, duplicative or not needed as frequently as currently required.
''At first, we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of reporting requirements,'' Heskett said. ''We haven't begun our evaluation yet. But I think we can reach our goal of eliminating the deadwood without compromising the need for accountability in our state agencies.''
Agencies stand to save thousands of staff hours and tons of paper, although the commission hasn't estimated yet exactly how much of either, Heskett said.
The Library and Archives Commission has only just begun assessing the report requirements one by one, which Heskett expects will take at least another year.
As for the commission's massive report on reports, Heskett predicts it won't go away.
''For the report to be effective, it must be ongoing,'' he said.
It was probably written by the Superintendent of Superfluity
Headline of the day
Pet-sitter accused of abuse as pot-bellied pig’s weight triples
Does it have to take a urine test?
Massive Black Hole Smashes Record
ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2007) — Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered the heftiest known black hole to orbit a star. The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our Sun, is more massive than scientists expected for a black hole that formed from a dying star.
The newly discovered object belongs to the category of "stellar-mass" black holes. Formed in the death throes of massive stars, they are smaller than the monster black holes found in galactic cores. The previous record holder for largest stellar-mass black hole is a 16-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M33, announced on October 17.
"We weren’t expecting to find a stellar-mass black hole this massive," says Andrea Prestwich of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., lead author of the discovery paper in the November 1 Astrophysical Journal Letters. "It seems likely that black holes that form from dying stars can be much larger than we had realized."
The black hole is located in the nearby dwarf galaxy IC 10, 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. Prestwich’s team could measure the black hole’s mass because it has an orbiting companion: a hot, highly evolved star. The star is ejecting gas in the form of a wind. Some of this material spirals toward the black hole, heats up, and gives off powerful X-rays before crossing the point of no return.
In November 2006, Prestwich and her colleagues observed the dwarf galaxy with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The group discovered that the galaxy’s brightest X-ray source, IC 10 X-1, exhibits sharp changes in X-ray brightness. Such behavior suggests a star periodically passing in front of a companion black hole and blocking the X-rays, creating an eclipse. In late November, NASA’s Swift satellite confirmed the eclipses and revealed details about the star’s orbit. The star in IC 10 X-1 appears to orbit in a plane that lies nearly edge-on to Earth’s line of sight, The Swift observations, as well as observations from the Gemini Telescope in Hawaii, told Prestwich and her group how fast the two stars go around each other. Calculations showed that the companion black hole has a mass of at least 24 Suns.
There are still some uncertainties in the black hole’s mass estimate, but as Prestwich notes, "Future optical observations will provide a final check. Any refinements in the IC 10 X-1 measurement are likely to increase the black hole’s mass rather than reduce it."
The black hole’s large mass is surprising because massive stars generate powerful winds that blow off a large fraction of the star’s mass before it explodes. Calculations suggest massive stars in our galaxy leave behind black holes no heavier than about 15 to 20 Suns.
The IC 10 X-1 black hole has gained mass since its birth by gobbling up gas from its companion star, but the rate is so slow that the black hole would have gained no more than 1 or 2 solar masses. "This black hole was born fat; it didn’t grow fat," says astrophysicist Richard Mushotzky of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who is not a member of the discovery team.
The progenitor star probably started its life with 60 or more solar masses. Like its host galaxy, it was probably deficient in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. In massive, luminous stars with a high fraction of heavy elements, the extra electrons of elements such as carbon and oxygen "feel" the outward pressure of light and are thus more susceptible to being swept away in stellar winds. But with its low fraction of heavy elements, the IC 10 X-1 progenitor shed comparatively little mass before it exploded, so it could leave behind a heavier black hole.
"Massive stars in our galaxy today are probably not producing very heavy stellar-mass black holes like this one," says coauthor Roy Kilgard of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. "But there could be millions of heavy stellar-mass black holes lurking out there that were produced early in the Milky Way’s history, before it had a chance to build up heavy elements."
Adapted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
Smithers, since you’re already at the buffet, be a good chap and bring me some leaves.
Social Standing Influences Elephant Movement
ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2007) — When resources are scarce, who you know and where you're positioned on the social totem pole affects how far you'll go to search for food. At least that's the case with African elephants, according to a study led by ecologists at the University of California, Berkeley, who collaborated with researchers at Save the Elephants, a non-profit research organization based in Kenya, and at the University of Oxford in England.
An analysis of social dominance relationships and roaming patterns of free-ranging elephants in the Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves in northern Kenya found that elephants led by older, more dominant matriarchs tromped significantly fewer miles to seek food than those a few rungs lower on the social ladder.
During the dry season, when water and vegetation were harder to come by, dominant groups traveled an average of 4-5 kilometers per day, about half the distance of subordinate groups that would trek 8-11 kilometers per day.
Additionally, dominant groups in the study were more likely to stick to the preferred central, protected areas of the park, where fewer humans and more water can be found.
"This work shows, for the first time, the role social factors play in the dispersal of elephants in an ecosystem," said lead author George Wittemyer, a post-doctoral researcher at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and a National Science Foundation International Research Fellow. "The findings have significant policy implications for how elephant populations are managed."
The elephants in this study occupied an open park, but in many areas of Africa, significant tracts of land are being fenced off to keep the elephants away from agricultural communities where the pachyderms' propensity to raid crops have earned them the label of pests. For example, some 12,000 elephants are enclosed in a 7,000 square kilometer area of South Africa's Kruger National Park.
The fencing practice has generated a great deal of debate about how best to balance the needs of the elephants with those of local residents - many of whom are subsistence farmers in need of protecting their crops. But the questions currently focus on the impact of the elephants on the local vegetation.
"Elephants can feed on a wide range of vegetation, but if they can't move, they're more likely to focus on a particular species - such as a favorite tree - potentially removing it from a local area," said Wittemyer. "Being 'ecosystem engineers,' they are capable of changing wooded plains to complete grasslands. Elephants have huge space and resource needs, and are particularly impacted by land use changes. Fencing in these populations means blocking them from their normal behavior of dispersal and migration, and changing the dynamics of how they interact with their environment."
The new findings, published in the October issue of the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, suggest that fencing can have other impacts not previously known on the social behavior of the elephants.
"What happens when elephant groups are forced into close contact with each other all the time" That's not yet clear," said Wittemyer. "Current elephant management plans do not yet consider the impact on social relationships."
Elephants are known for their complex social networks, with families of six to 12 individuals ruled by a matriarch. "They're one of the very few species that have a level of complexity in their social networks comparable to humans," said Wittemyer. "Studies have shown that elephants can distinguish more than 100 individuals just by their vocalization patterns."
The researchers individually recognize in northern Kenya over 900 elephants - including seven who were fitted with GPS collars. Over the course of nine years, they carefully observed elephant interaction, taking note of the telltale behavior of social dominance, such as the flaring of the ears, a tusk poke here or a trunk slap there, to determine rank.
Three of the GPS-collared elephants were from very dominant families, two were in the middle, and two were positioned low in the social hierarchy. Elephant groups averaged nine members and were each led by a matriarch. Out of the study population, 50 groups were the focus of this paper.
"Save the Elephants' advanced satellite tracking system is enabling us a unique and fascinating insight into the hourly movements of our study elephants," said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, study co-author and founder of Save the Elephants, which supported the radio-tracking of the elephant movements. "Our collars are now revealing how complex the relationship is between elephants' social structure and their environment."
Interestingly, the differences in movement among the various groups disappeared during the wet season, when food and water are readily available.
"When resources are plentiful, there is little competition, so there is no need for socially mediated differentiation in how space is used," said Wittemyer. "Dominant groups actually increase their movements in the wet season, exploring the region and interacting socially with other groups. Elephants love to move. It's when conditions are bad that they conserve energy by restricting their movement."
Other co-authors of the study are Wayne Getz, UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management; and Fritz Vollrath, professor of zoology at the University of Oxford.
You mean things aren’t always what they seem? More groundbreaking research from the land of social science. The whole thing sounds vaguely Clintonesque—or is that Clintonian?.
Holier Than Thou? Employees Who Believe They Are 'Ethical' Or 'Moral' Might Not Be
ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2007) — Bad behavior seems rampant in business, and scholars are divided as to why people act ethically or unethically. Many have argued that ethical behavior is the result of simple judgments between right and wrong. Others suggest that the driving force behind ethical behavior is the individual's moral identity, or whether the individual thinks of him/herself as an ethical person.
New research from the University of Washington suggests that both of these forces are at play. In two separate studies, Scott Reynolds, an assistant professor in the Michael G. Foster School of Business, and Tara Ceranic, a doctoral student studying business, surveyed roughly 500 college students and managers about their ethical behaviors.
In the first study, researchers asked students if they would have cheated in college in order to score better on a test. Those who explicitly considered themselves to be moral people and considered cheating to be morally wrong were the least likely to cheat. In contrast, students who considered themselves to be moral but saw cheating as an ethically justifiable behavior were the worst cheaters.
"Our research suggests that a moral identity motivates behavior, but that accurate, ethical judgments are needed to set that behavior in the right direction," Reynolds says. "A person's moral identity can interact with his or her judgments and actually push ethical behaviors to extreme levels, as we saw with the students who decided that cheating was justifiable and OK."
According to the researchers, a moral identity specifically centers on a person's moral aspects and acts as a self-regulatory mechanism that sets parameters for individual behavior and motivates specific actions that are moral.
Previous studies implied that moral identity is "good" when it is associated with and motivates individuals toward socially desirable outcomes such as volunteering and making charitable donations.
Reynolds and Ceranic found that this motivational force needs direction, and that without proper guidance a moral identity can conceivably push individuals toward socially undesirable behaviors.
"Moral identity seems to be more motivational in nature than 'moral' in nature," Reynolds says. "Managers and organizations should not just assume that a moral identity will necessarily translate into moral behaviors."
In a second study designed to more fully illustrate the motivational power of a moral identity, Reynolds and Ceranic presented company mangers with a scenario that was morally ambiguous. In the scenario, a hard-working hourly employee completed her work and was prepared to go home early, but she needed the hours. Each manager was presented with different options for dealing with the situation.
These varied from being very accommodating (giving the employee the rest of the day off with pay) to very strict (keeping her at work and finding additional work for her to complete), with more moderate options in between. As expected, those who viewed themselves as moral people were most likely to take the most extreme alternatives, and chose either to be extremely accommodating to the employee or exceedingly strict about the rules in the workplace. This study proved that their moral identity motivated them to the most extreme behaviors.
As the first study demonstrated, sometimes these extreme behaviors may not be in the best interests of the organization. There are measures, though, that companies can take to help improve moral behavior.
First, Reynolds says, companies can focus on improving individual moral judgments. Moral development has been shown to improve with formal ethics training programs. Company leaders should provide both model moral judgment and delegate authority appropriately.
Organizations also can more effectively communicate social consensus from higher sources, such as state and federal law, and more firmly establish their own social consensus in areas such as gift-giving policies. Doing so would presumably reduce the need for individual moral judgment and remove some of the variance in individual behavior. Mechanisms for conveying social consensus would include codes of conduct and both formal (newsletters, e-mails) and informal (speeches, conversations) information channels.
Finally, companies can reward and encourage behaviors associated with the traits of a moral identity (fair, hardworking, compassionate), thereby encouraging development of moral identities within employees. Both formal and informal systems would have to be considered, and such efforts would have implications for the identity of the entire organization. Nevertheless, the research indicates that if an organization employs individuals with strong moral identities, moral behavior will follow.
Why this country needs capital punishment
More pets dressed to chill for Halloween
PETS IN COSTUME
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY
Looking to scare up Halloween sales, retailers have stocked up on what to some might be a scary idea: pet costumes.
More than 7.4 million households will dress up their pets this year, the National Retail Federation says. Most popular are devils, pumpkins and witches, the NRF says, but offbeat costumes, such as a peacock and a mini-Princess Leia from Star Wars, are also selling.
Stores "can't keep the costumes on the shelves this year," says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.
A survey last year by that trade group found that 7% of consumers bought a Halloween costume for their pet, up from 4% in 2004. Vetere expects demand to rise again this year as owners continue to "humanize" their pets. Already, nearly 90% of dog owners said they think of their pooches "like a child or family member," according to the American Kennel Club.
Eileen Choi, a 28-year-old from Alexandria, Va., is one of them. She says her Pomeranian, Coco, is "like my child." Coco is masquerading as a pirate Wednesday.
Not that Halloween is just for dogs and cats. At a costume contest last week at an Erie, Pa., PetSmart (PETM) store, a Clydesdale horse showed up as a poodle.
"There's no limit," says Vetere, who saw a costume for turtles at one store. "It had a fin that goes through the water so he looks like a shark."
Halloween costumes are just one example of how owners are making pet-pampering products and services a big business. To meet growing demand, retailers now offer goodies ranging from doggie facials, massages and paw-dicures (for polished nails) to high-end fashions, such as faux mink coats.
About 63% of U.S. households — 71.1 million homes — own a pet, according to the pet products trade group, and owners will spend $41 billion on their pets this year. The total is up 6% from last year and has risen steadily in the last decade.
Bloomingdale's, which carries trendy Juicy Couture doggie clothes, has added personal care products from spinoff brand Juicy Crittoure.
"This is the first time that we've carried a full line of beauty and grooming products for dogs," says Howard Kreitzman, Bloomingdale's cosmetics and fragrances vice president.
Among the most popular items: a $14 bottle of pink nail polish and a $55 set that has "Shampooch" cleanser and "Coif Fur" conditioner.
The Juicy lines don't include costumes, but that didn't stop the Bloomie's in McLean, Va., from getting into the holiday spirit. On Saturday, it hosted a pet costume fashion show to draw attention to the pet polishes and perfumes it sells that benefited the local animal society. Strutting the runway were 25 costumed dogs, including Choi's pirate Coco.
"So many people are completely devoted to their pets and (spending) money on them," says Catherine Cook, general manager of the Tysons Corner Center Bloomie's. "We thought this would be a great tie-in for our business."
Other retailers making Halloween a howl:
•Large pet-supply stores. Petco increased its Halloween assortment by nearly 75% this year, spokeswoman Rachel McLennan says. In addition to costumes, it sells dog treats in skull, pumpkin and bat shapes for $3.99 to $4.99 a pound. It also offers a Pumpkin Spice Spa Works grooming package — from $30 to $75 based on size and breed — that includes a pumpkin spice shampoo, a frilly orange-and-black "party collar" and glow-in-the-dark nail polish.
PetSmart also does a brisk Halloween business, spokeswoman Jennifer Ericsson says. Hot sellers this year are $12-to-$14 "cat hats," which include pirate, witch and cowboy versions. For canines, "The devil costume is very big," she says. "I think it's because everyone can see the devil in their dog."
•Pet boutiques. Tails in the City, a pet boutique in Chicago, has seen Halloween-related sales grow about 50% over 2006, co-owner Bruce Haas says. The store offers dozens of doggie costumes that range from $15 to $35. "Even people who don't dress up their dogs regularly like to dress them at Halloween," Haas says.
The Salty Paw in Manhattan began to get requests for costumes in early October, co-owner Randi Karmin says. The 500-square-foot sales area is filled with costumes, Halloween-themed dog treats and T-shirts that say Count Dogula. "We have everything from a turtle to a bumblebee (costumes)," she says.
•Mass merchants. The princess, witch and Dracula costumes for pets are popular at Wal-Mart (WMT), spokeswoman Deisha Galberth says. It also sells feminine frocks for pets from maker SimplyShe, including a little black-and-orange dress with a glow-in-the-dark skull on the front.
Rival Target (TGT) has sold doggie costumes since 2005, and this year it expanded its Halloween pet merchandise to include a costume line for cats.
For owners who want other opportunities to dress up their pets, Target spokeswoman Lena Michaud says the retailer will have a pet-costume line for the winter holiday season, including Hanukkah accessories and Mr. and Mrs. Claus outfits.
And they vote.....
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Making Science More Better For You on 10/30/07
Gee, and all this time I thought it was a mob hit
Volcanic Eruptions, Not Meteor, May Have Killed The Dinosaurs
ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2007) — A series of monumental volcanic eruptions in India may have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, not a meteor impact in the Gulf of Mexico. The eruptions, which created the gigantic Deccan Traps lava beds of India, are now the prime suspect in the most famous and persistent paleontological murder mystery, say scientists who have conducted a slew of new investigations honing down eruption timing.
"It's the first time we can directly link the main phase of the Deccan Traps to the mass extinction," said Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller. The main phase of the Deccan eruptions spewed 80 percent of the lava which spread out for hundreds of miles. It is calculated to have released ten times more climate altering gases into the atmosphere than the nearly concurrent Chicxulub meteor impact, according to volcanologist Vincent Courtillot from the Physique du Globe de Paris.
Keller's crucial link between the eruption and the mass extinction comes in the form of microscopic marine fossils that are known to have evolved immediately after the mysterious mass extinction event. The same telltale fossilized planktonic foraminifera were found at Rajahmundry near the Bay of Bengal, about 1000 kilometers from the center of the Deccan Traps near Mumbai. At Rajahmundry there are two lava "traps" containing four layers of lava each. Between the traps are about nine meters of marine sediments. Those sediments just above the lower trap, which was the mammoth main phase, contain the incriminating microfossils.
Previous work had first narrowed the Deccan eruption timing to within 800,000 years of the extinction event using paleomagnetic signatures of Earth's changing magnetic field frozen in minerals that crystallized from the cooling lava. Then radiometric dating of argon and potassium isotopes in minerals narrowed the age to within 300,000 years of the 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary (a.k.a. Cretaceous-Paleogene) boundary, sometimes called the K-T boundary.
The microfossils are far more specific, however, because they demonstrate directly that the biggest phase of the eruption ended right when the aftermath of the mass extinction event began. That sort of clear-cut timing has been a lot tougher to pin down with Chicxulub-related sediments, which predate the mass extinction.
"Our results are consistent and mutually supportive with a number of new studies, including Chenet, Courtillot and others (in press) and Jay and Widdowson (in press), that reveal a very short time for the main Deccan eruptions at or near the K-T boundary and the massive carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide output of each major eruption that dwarfs the output of Chicxulub," explained Keller. "Our K-T age control combined with these results strongly points to Deccan volcanism as the likely leading contender in the K-T mass extinction." Keller's study was funded by the National Science Foundation.
The Deccan Traps also provide an answer to a question on which Chicxulub was silent: Why did it take about 300,000 years for marine species to recover from the extinction event? The solution is in the upper, later Deccan Traps eruptions.
"It's been an enigma," Keller said. "The very last one was Early Danian, 280,000 years after the mass extinction, which coincides with the delayed recovery."
Keller and her colleagues are planning to explore the onset of the main phase of Deccan volcanism, that is, the rocks directly beneath the main phase lavas at Rajahmundry. That will require drilling into the Rajahmundry Traps, a project now slated for December-January 2007/2008.
Keller and her collaborator Thierry Adatte from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, are scheduled to present the new findings on Tuesday, 30 October, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. They will also display a poster on the matter at the meeting on Wednesday, 31 October.
Adapted from materials provided by Geological Society of America.
Volcano, meteor, volcano, meteor—either way they’re still dead, right? Unless this story is just a plant so we don’t worry about that big meteor headed this way.
This just in from our “We’re Smart and You’re Not” Department
Brain Activity Differs For Creative And Noncreative Thinkers
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2007) — Why do some people solve problems more creatively than others? Are people who think creatively different from those who tend to think in a more methodical fashion?
These questions are part of a long-standing debate, with some researchers arguing that what we call “creative thought” and “noncreative thought” are not basically different. If this is the case, then people who are thought of as creative do not really think in a fundamentally different way from those who are thought of as noncreative. On the other side of this debate, some researchers have argued that creative thought is fundamentally different from other forms of thought. If this is true, then those who tend to think creatively really are somehow different.
A new study led by John Kounios, professor of Psychology at Drexel University and Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern University answers these questions by comparing the brain activity of creative and noncreative problem solvers. The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, reveals a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest, in people who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight -- an “Aha! Moment” – compared to people who tend to solve problems more methodically.
At the beginning of the study, participants relaxed quietly for seven minutes while their electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded to show their brain activity. The participants were not given any task to perform and were told they could think about whatever they wanted to think about. Later, they were asked to solve a series of anagrams – scrambled letters that can be rearranged to form words [MPXAELE = EXAMPLE]. These can be solved by deliberately and methodically trying out different letter combinations, or they can be solved with a sudden insight or “Aha!” in which the solution pops into awareness. After each successful solution, participants indicated in which way the solution had come to them.
The participants were then divided into two groups – those who reported solving the problems mostly by sudden insight, and those who reported solving the problems more methodically – and resting-state brain activity for these groups was compared. As predicted, the two groups displayed strikingly different patterns of brain activity during the resting period at the beginning of the experiment – before they knew that they would have to solve problems or even knew what the study was about.
One difference was that the creative solvers exhibited greater activity in several regions of the right hemisphere. Previous research has suggested that the right hemisphere of the brain plays a special role in solving problems with creative insight, likely due to right-hemisphere involvement in the processing of loose or “remote” associations between the elements of a problem, which is understood to be an important component of creative thought. The current study shows that greater right-hemisphere activity occurs even during a “resting” state in those with a tendency to solve problems by creative insight. This finding suggests that even the spontaneous thought of creative individuals, such as in their daydreams, contains more remote associations.
Second, creative and methodical solvers exhibited different activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of “alpha” and “beta” brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than focused visual attention. This may allow creative individuals to broadly sample the environment for experiences that can trigger remote associations to produce an Aha! Moment.
For example, a glimpse of an advertisement on a billboard or a word spoken in an overheard conversation could spark an association that leads to a solution. In contrast, the more focused attention of methodical solvers reduces their distractibility, allowing them to effectively solve problems for which the solution strategy is already known, as would be the case for balancing a checkbook or baking a cake using a known recipe.
Thus, the new study shows that basic differences in brain activity between creative and methodical problem solvers exist and are evident even when these individuals are not working on a problem. According to Kounios, “Problem solving, whether creative or methodical, doesn’t begin from scratch when a person starts to work on a problem. His or her pre-existing brain-state biases a person to use a creative or a methodical strategy.”
In addition to contributing to current knowledge about the neural basis of creativity, this study suggests the possible development of new brain imaging techniques for assessing potential for creative thought, and for assessing the effectiveness of methods for training individuals to think creatively.
Yeah, nice little study with the EEG, the alpha and the beta and the Aha Moment. Too bad they didn’t work the paycheck factor into their study. As in, “who makes more?” Yeah, pal, I got your creative thinkin’ right here.
Headline of the day
Hunter recovering after being shot by dog
(AP and MSNBC)
So, you ask, what does a slow news day look like in science land?
Condiments Can Take Food From 'Blah' To 'Ahh' And Add Nutritional Value
ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2007) — With the right choice of condiments, seasonings or sauces, ordinary food can go from “blah” to “ahh” – with a boost in nutritional value.
“Think color,” said University of Arkansas dietetics professor Marjorie Fitch-Hilgenberg. “We eat with our eyes, and choosing colorful condiments can enhance the nutritional value of a routine food.”
Fitch-Hilgenberg uses the term condiments broadly to include all the “accompaniments” to food, such as seasonings, sauces, garnishes and marinades. All have their place in making food interesting and nutritious.
“Look at an average sandwich – some meat or cheese between slices of bread and slathered with mayonnaise,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “When you add dark leafy greens and tomatoes and replace the mayo, you can create a quick lunch with a serving or more of vegetables and little excess fat.”
Fitch-Hilgenberg’s research has shown that most people don’t notice the difference when nutrient-rich spinach replaces lettuce on burgers and subs. The resulting sandwich provides greater quantities of key nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin A and folic acid.
There are more healthy alternatives to mayonnaise, beyond the low-fat and non-fat options on the grocery shelves. Fitch-Hilgenberg recommended looking for opportunities to replace mayonnaise with low-fat yogurt. For example, yogurt mixed with coarse mustard and dill is a tasty topping for grilled salmon steaks or salmon croquettes. She also uses a variety of mustards – Dijon, coarse-ground, spicy brown and wasabi – as low-calorie, high-flavor condiments.
“You don’t have to use mayo on a sandwich,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “You can spread some salsa, cranberry sauce, mango chutney or sauerkraut. They all add great taste and some extra nutrients without adding fat.”
She also looks for ways to add fruit to a meal by using it to flavor foods. For example, adding orange slices to cooked carrots can make the carrots more appealing to children and even more nutritious. Whipping fresh or frozen fruit in the blender makes a good topping for ice cream or a stir-in for plain yogurt.
“Condiments give you a chance to be adventurous and to taste other cuisines without leaving home,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “Chicken can be marinated in tandoori sauce, barbeque sauce or spicy brown mustard to take your meal to India, Texas or Germany.”
Two condiments from south Asia can be found in most groceries – curries and chutneys. Curry, which some studies have shown to contribute to healthy aging, does not have to be hot. A mild curry can be an intriguing addition to cooked carrots or rice and broccoli. Chutneys come in many different varieties, and Fitch-Hilgenberg advised reading the label before buying. Some contain fruit, such as mango chutney; others contain high levels of sodium.
Fitch-Hilgenberg cautioned that the downside to condiments is that they can add empty calories while disguising the flavor of foods. Marinades are a good way to flavor foods instead of spreading sauces on after cooking. Similarly, when a salad is tossed in a large bowl with a little dressing, the flavor of the greens is enhanced without being drenched in dressing that is high in fat and sodium. A plus, Fitch-Hilgenberg noted, is that it is much cheaper to use a little sauce or dressing in the kitchen than to put the bottle on the table.
“Healthy condiments can be used by everyone, whether for plain food or gourmet, carnivore or vegetarian,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “The condiments we choose are only limited by our imagination.”
If you’re waiting for me to drag out a “Hot today, chili tomorrow” joke, you’re wasting your time.
Volcanic Eruptions, Not Meteor, May Have Killed The Dinosaurs
ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2007) — A series of monumental volcanic eruptions in India may have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, not a meteor impact in the Gulf of Mexico. The eruptions, which created the gigantic Deccan Traps lava beds of India, are now the prime suspect in the most famous and persistent paleontological murder mystery, say scientists who have conducted a slew of new investigations honing down eruption timing.
"It's the first time we can directly link the main phase of the Deccan Traps to the mass extinction," said Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller. The main phase of the Deccan eruptions spewed 80 percent of the lava which spread out for hundreds of miles. It is calculated to have released ten times more climate altering gases into the atmosphere than the nearly concurrent Chicxulub meteor impact, according to volcanologist Vincent Courtillot from the Physique du Globe de Paris.
Keller's crucial link between the eruption and the mass extinction comes in the form of microscopic marine fossils that are known to have evolved immediately after the mysterious mass extinction event. The same telltale fossilized planktonic foraminifera were found at Rajahmundry near the Bay of Bengal, about 1000 kilometers from the center of the Deccan Traps near Mumbai. At Rajahmundry there are two lava "traps" containing four layers of lava each. Between the traps are about nine meters of marine sediments. Those sediments just above the lower trap, which was the mammoth main phase, contain the incriminating microfossils.
Previous work had first narrowed the Deccan eruption timing to within 800,000 years of the extinction event using paleomagnetic signatures of Earth's changing magnetic field frozen in minerals that crystallized from the cooling lava. Then radiometric dating of argon and potassium isotopes in minerals narrowed the age to within 300,000 years of the 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary (a.k.a. Cretaceous-Paleogene) boundary, sometimes called the K-T boundary.
The microfossils are far more specific, however, because they demonstrate directly that the biggest phase of the eruption ended right when the aftermath of the mass extinction event began. That sort of clear-cut timing has been a lot tougher to pin down with Chicxulub-related sediments, which predate the mass extinction.
"Our results are consistent and mutually supportive with a number of new studies, including Chenet, Courtillot and others (in press) and Jay and Widdowson (in press), that reveal a very short time for the main Deccan eruptions at or near the K-T boundary and the massive carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide output of each major eruption that dwarfs the output of Chicxulub," explained Keller. "Our K-T age control combined with these results strongly points to Deccan volcanism as the likely leading contender in the K-T mass extinction." Keller's study was funded by the National Science Foundation.
The Deccan Traps also provide an answer to a question on which Chicxulub was silent: Why did it take about 300,000 years for marine species to recover from the extinction event? The solution is in the upper, later Deccan Traps eruptions.
"It's been an enigma," Keller said. "The very last one was Early Danian, 280,000 years after the mass extinction, which coincides with the delayed recovery."
Keller and her colleagues are planning to explore the onset of the main phase of Deccan volcanism, that is, the rocks directly beneath the main phase lavas at Rajahmundry. That will require drilling into the Rajahmundry Traps, a project now slated for December-January 2007/2008.
Keller and her collaborator Thierry Adatte from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, are scheduled to present the new findings on Tuesday, 30 October, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. They will also display a poster on the matter at the meeting on Wednesday, 31 October.
Adapted from materials provided by Geological Society of America.
Volcano, meteor, volcano, meteor—either way they’re still dead, right? Unless this story is just a plant so we don’t worry about that big meteor headed this way.
This just in from our “We’re Smart and You’re Not” Department
Brain Activity Differs For Creative And Noncreative Thinkers
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2007) — Why do some people solve problems more creatively than others? Are people who think creatively different from those who tend to think in a more methodical fashion?
These questions are part of a long-standing debate, with some researchers arguing that what we call “creative thought” and “noncreative thought” are not basically different. If this is the case, then people who are thought of as creative do not really think in a fundamentally different way from those who are thought of as noncreative. On the other side of this debate, some researchers have argued that creative thought is fundamentally different from other forms of thought. If this is true, then those who tend to think creatively really are somehow different.
A new study led by John Kounios, professor of Psychology at Drexel University and Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern University answers these questions by comparing the brain activity of creative and noncreative problem solvers. The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, reveals a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest, in people who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight -- an “Aha! Moment” – compared to people who tend to solve problems more methodically.
At the beginning of the study, participants relaxed quietly for seven minutes while their electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded to show their brain activity. The participants were not given any task to perform and were told they could think about whatever they wanted to think about. Later, they were asked to solve a series of anagrams – scrambled letters that can be rearranged to form words [MPXAELE = EXAMPLE]. These can be solved by deliberately and methodically trying out different letter combinations, or they can be solved with a sudden insight or “Aha!” in which the solution pops into awareness. After each successful solution, participants indicated in which way the solution had come to them.
The participants were then divided into two groups – those who reported solving the problems mostly by sudden insight, and those who reported solving the problems more methodically – and resting-state brain activity for these groups was compared. As predicted, the two groups displayed strikingly different patterns of brain activity during the resting period at the beginning of the experiment – before they knew that they would have to solve problems or even knew what the study was about.
One difference was that the creative solvers exhibited greater activity in several regions of the right hemisphere. Previous research has suggested that the right hemisphere of the brain plays a special role in solving problems with creative insight, likely due to right-hemisphere involvement in the processing of loose or “remote” associations between the elements of a problem, which is understood to be an important component of creative thought. The current study shows that greater right-hemisphere activity occurs even during a “resting” state in those with a tendency to solve problems by creative insight. This finding suggests that even the spontaneous thought of creative individuals, such as in their daydreams, contains more remote associations.
Second, creative and methodical solvers exhibited different activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of “alpha” and “beta” brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than focused visual attention. This may allow creative individuals to broadly sample the environment for experiences that can trigger remote associations to produce an Aha! Moment.
For example, a glimpse of an advertisement on a billboard or a word spoken in an overheard conversation could spark an association that leads to a solution. In contrast, the more focused attention of methodical solvers reduces their distractibility, allowing them to effectively solve problems for which the solution strategy is already known, as would be the case for balancing a checkbook or baking a cake using a known recipe.
Thus, the new study shows that basic differences in brain activity between creative and methodical problem solvers exist and are evident even when these individuals are not working on a problem. According to Kounios, “Problem solving, whether creative or methodical, doesn’t begin from scratch when a person starts to work on a problem. His or her pre-existing brain-state biases a person to use a creative or a methodical strategy.”
In addition to contributing to current knowledge about the neural basis of creativity, this study suggests the possible development of new brain imaging techniques for assessing potential for creative thought, and for assessing the effectiveness of methods for training individuals to think creatively.
Yeah, nice little study with the EEG, the alpha and the beta and the Aha Moment. Too bad they didn’t work the paycheck factor into their study. As in, “who makes more?” Yeah, pal, I got your creative thinkin’ right here.
Headline of the day
Hunter recovering after being shot by dog
(AP and MSNBC)
So, you ask, what does a slow news day look like in science land?
Condiments Can Take Food From 'Blah' To 'Ahh' And Add Nutritional Value
ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2007) — With the right choice of condiments, seasonings or sauces, ordinary food can go from “blah” to “ahh” – with a boost in nutritional value.
“Think color,” said University of Arkansas dietetics professor Marjorie Fitch-Hilgenberg. “We eat with our eyes, and choosing colorful condiments can enhance the nutritional value of a routine food.”
Fitch-Hilgenberg uses the term condiments broadly to include all the “accompaniments” to food, such as seasonings, sauces, garnishes and marinades. All have their place in making food interesting and nutritious.
“Look at an average sandwich – some meat or cheese between slices of bread and slathered with mayonnaise,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “When you add dark leafy greens and tomatoes and replace the mayo, you can create a quick lunch with a serving or more of vegetables and little excess fat.”
Fitch-Hilgenberg’s research has shown that most people don’t notice the difference when nutrient-rich spinach replaces lettuce on burgers and subs. The resulting sandwich provides greater quantities of key nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin A and folic acid.
There are more healthy alternatives to mayonnaise, beyond the low-fat and non-fat options on the grocery shelves. Fitch-Hilgenberg recommended looking for opportunities to replace mayonnaise with low-fat yogurt. For example, yogurt mixed with coarse mustard and dill is a tasty topping for grilled salmon steaks or salmon croquettes. She also uses a variety of mustards – Dijon, coarse-ground, spicy brown and wasabi – as low-calorie, high-flavor condiments.
“You don’t have to use mayo on a sandwich,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “You can spread some salsa, cranberry sauce, mango chutney or sauerkraut. They all add great taste and some extra nutrients without adding fat.”
She also looks for ways to add fruit to a meal by using it to flavor foods. For example, adding orange slices to cooked carrots can make the carrots more appealing to children and even more nutritious. Whipping fresh or frozen fruit in the blender makes a good topping for ice cream or a stir-in for plain yogurt.
“Condiments give you a chance to be adventurous and to taste other cuisines without leaving home,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “Chicken can be marinated in tandoori sauce, barbeque sauce or spicy brown mustard to take your meal to India, Texas or Germany.”
Two condiments from south Asia can be found in most groceries – curries and chutneys. Curry, which some studies have shown to contribute to healthy aging, does not have to be hot. A mild curry can be an intriguing addition to cooked carrots or rice and broccoli. Chutneys come in many different varieties, and Fitch-Hilgenberg advised reading the label before buying. Some contain fruit, such as mango chutney; others contain high levels of sodium.
Fitch-Hilgenberg cautioned that the downside to condiments is that they can add empty calories while disguising the flavor of foods. Marinades are a good way to flavor foods instead of spreading sauces on after cooking. Similarly, when a salad is tossed in a large bowl with a little dressing, the flavor of the greens is enhanced without being drenched in dressing that is high in fat and sodium. A plus, Fitch-Hilgenberg noted, is that it is much cheaper to use a little sauce or dressing in the kitchen than to put the bottle on the table.
“Healthy condiments can be used by everyone, whether for plain food or gourmet, carnivore or vegetarian,” Fitch-Hilgenberg said. “The condiments we choose are only limited by our imagination.”
If you’re waiting for me to drag out a “Hot today, chili tomorrow” joke, you’re wasting your time.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Making Science More Better For You on 10/29/07
We heard that Flea and the rest of the guys were really excited and were going to ask it to join the band
World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2007) — Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world's hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.
In replicated tests of Scoville heat units (SHUs), Bhut Jolokia reached one million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of Red Savina, which measured a mere 577,000.
Dr. Paul Bosland, Director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University's Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences collected seeds of Bhut Jolokia while visiting India in 2001.
Bosland grew Bhut Jolokia plants under insect-proof cages for three years to produce enough seed to complete the required field tests.
"The name Bhut Jolokia translates as 'ghost chile,'" Bosland said, "I think it's because the chile is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it!"
Bosland added that the intense heat concentration of Bhut Jolokia could have significant impact on the food industry as an economical seasoning in packaged foods.
Bhut Jolokia? Wonder if it knows Jar Jar Binks.
Chocolate replaces the giraffe as that thing in the corner you're trying to not
think about
Resistance To Thoughts Of Chocolate Is Futile
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2007) — A research project carried out by a University of Hertfordshire academic has found that thought suppression can lead people to engage in the very behaviour they are trying to avoid.
It also found that men who think about chocolate end up eating more of it than women who have the same thoughts.
In his research project, Dr Erskine looked at the effect of thought suppression on action and used eating and chocolate to investigate this further.
He invited 134 young people (67 males and 67 females) with an average age of 22 years to investigate how thinking can affect taste preference. They were given a taste preference task, where they were asked to try two brands of chocolate and answer a questionnaire and they were also given two periods of thought verbalisation where they would have to verbalise their thoughts while alone. Additionally, they were given specific topics to try to think or not to think about.
The results indicated that there is a clear behavioural rebound among both male and female participants and both males and females who suppressed thoughts of chocolate ate significantly more than those in the control condition. Secondly, for males, actively thinking about chocolate can enhance subsequent consumption of that food.
“These findings open the door to a whole host of potential candidates for such effects,” said Dr Erskine. “For example, does trying not to think about having another drink make it more likely, or does trying not to think, or to think aggressively lead to aggressive behaviour? These questions are vitally important if we are to understand the ways in which thought control engenders the very behaviour one wanted to avoid.”
The research paper, entitled "Resistance can be futile investigating behavioural rebound," by Dr James Erskine at the University’s School of Psychology, has just been published online at Appetite.
So chocolate is really an alien plot designed to eliminate all will power? We’re down.
Actually, we thought the longest living animal was Mel Brooks
Longest Living Animal? Clam -- 400 Years Old -- Found In Icelandic Waters
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2007) — A clam dredged from Icelandic waters had lived for 400 years - is this the longest-lived animal known to science.
Can you imagine living for four centuries? A team of scientists from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences believe they have found an animal which did just that, a quahog clam, Arctica islandica, which was living and growing on the seabed in the cold waters off the north coast of Iceland for around 400 years.
When this animal was a juvenile, King James I replaced Queen Elizabeth I as English monarch, Shakespeare was writing his greatest plays Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth and Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for espousing the view that the Sun rather than the Earth was the centre of the universe.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the existing record for the longest-lived animal belongs to a 220 year old Arctica clam collected in 1982 from American waters. Unofficially, the record belongs to a 374 year old Icelandic clam which was found in a museum. Both these records appear to have been eclipsed by the latest specimen, whose age, between 405 and 410 years, has been assessed by counting the annual growth lines in the shell.
The Bangor scientists are sclerochronologists who study the growth and age of clams using annual growth lines in the shell in much the same way as dendrochronologists study the growth of trees using tree-rings. Clam shell growth is related to environmental conditions such as seawater temperature, salinity and food availability. The team analyse the shell growth histories with a view to understanding changes in the ocean linked to climate change.
The clam was dredged up by Team members Paul Butler and James Scourse during a data collection cruise in Icelandic coastal waters in 2006 which formed part of the EU MILLENNIUM project investigating climate changes over the last 1000 years. The exciting discovery was made by postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker, the newest member of the ‘Arctica’ team. “Al and Paul rushed up to my office to announce that they had found a record-breaker,” said team member Chris Richardson. A detailed assessment later confirmed that, at 400 years, the clam had beaten the previous record by a massive 30 years!!
It is very likely that longer lived individuals of the species remain to be found. Although Icelandic waters seem to provide the ideal conditions for extreme longevity, clams with lifetimes well in excess of 200 years have been found both in the Irish Sea and the North Sea.
So why do these clams live so long? The Bangor scientists are intrigued to find out and believe that the clams may have evolved exceptionally effective defences which hold back the destructive ageing processes that normally occur. "If, in Arctica islandica, evolution has created a model of successful resistance to the damage of ageing, it is possible that an investigation of the tissues of these real life Methuselahs might help us to understand the processes of ageing," explains Chris.
Adapted from materials provided by Bangor University
Headline of the day (CNN)
Cow-killing meteorite sells for $1,554
The Valera Meteorite, noteworthy as the only space rock documented to have caused a fatality on Earth. Its victim in 1972 was a cow in Venezuela.
The other headline of the day (The Obscure Store)
Coach moons girls on opposing team after contentious game
Nothing like leading by example.
Yeah, sure. They said the same thing about Bigfoot.
Scientists say dark matter doesn't exist
By Ker Than
Staff Writer
Two Canadian astronomers think there is a good reason dark matter, a mysterious substance thought to make up the bulk of matter in the universe, has never been directly detected: It doesn't exist.
Dark matter was invoked to explain how galaxies stick together. The visible matter alone in galaxies — stars, gas and dust — is nowhere near enough to hold them together, so scientists reasoned there must be something invisible that exerts gravity and is central to all galaxies.
Last August, an astronomer at the University of Arizona at Tucson and his colleagues reported that a collision between two huge clusters of galaxies 3 billion light-years away, known as the Bullet Cluster, had caused clouds of dark matter to separate from normal matter. Many scientists said the observations were proof of dark matter's existence and a serious blow for alternative explanations aiming to do away with dark matter with modified theories of gravity.
Now John Moffat, an astronomer at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and Joel Brownstein, his graduate student, say those announcements were premature.
In a study detailed in the Nov. 21 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the pair says their Modified Gravity theory can explain the Bullet Cluster observation.
Using images of the Bullet Cluster made by the Hubble, Chandra X-ray and Spitzer space telescopes and the Magellan telescope in Chile, the scientists analyzed the way the cluster's gravity bent light from a background galaxy — an effect known as gravity lensing. The pair concluded that dark matter was not necessary to explain the results.
"Using Modified Gravity theory, the 'normal' matter in the Bullet Cluster is enough to account for the observed gravitational lensing effect," Brownstein said. "Continuing the search for and then analyzing other merging clusters of galaxies will help us decide whether dark matter or MOG theory offers the best explanation for the large scale structure of the universe."
Moffat compares the modern interest with dark matter to the insistence by scientists in the early 20th century on the existence of a "luminiferous ether," a hypothetical substance thought to fill the universe and through which light waves were thought to propagate.
"They saw a glimpse of special relativity, but they weren't willing to give up the ether," Moffat told SPACE.com. "Then Einstein came along and said we don't need the ether. The rest was history."
Douglas Clowe, the lead astronomer of the team that linked the Bullet Cluster observations with dark matter (and now at Ohio University), says he still stands by his original claim.
"As far as we're concerned, [Moffat] hasn't done anything that makes us retract our earlier statement that the Bullet Cluster shows us that we have to have dark matter," Clowe said. "We're still open to modifying gravity to reduce the amount of dark matter, but we're pretty sure that you have to have most of the mass of the universe still in some form of dark matter."
It’s all marketing. If they had only called it “gravy” instead of “dark matter” there wouldn’t be this problem. Besides, everyone knows the universe is held together by honey and post it notes.
World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2007) — Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world's hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.
In replicated tests of Scoville heat units (SHUs), Bhut Jolokia reached one million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of Red Savina, which measured a mere 577,000.
Dr. Paul Bosland, Director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University's Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences collected seeds of Bhut Jolokia while visiting India in 2001.
Bosland grew Bhut Jolokia plants under insect-proof cages for three years to produce enough seed to complete the required field tests.
"The name Bhut Jolokia translates as 'ghost chile,'" Bosland said, "I think it's because the chile is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it!"
Bosland added that the intense heat concentration of Bhut Jolokia could have significant impact on the food industry as an economical seasoning in packaged foods.
Bhut Jolokia? Wonder if it knows Jar Jar Binks.
Chocolate replaces the giraffe as that thing in the corner you're trying to not
think about
Resistance To Thoughts Of Chocolate Is Futile
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2007) — A research project carried out by a University of Hertfordshire academic has found that thought suppression can lead people to engage in the very behaviour they are trying to avoid.
It also found that men who think about chocolate end up eating more of it than women who have the same thoughts.
In his research project, Dr Erskine looked at the effect of thought suppression on action and used eating and chocolate to investigate this further.
He invited 134 young people (67 males and 67 females) with an average age of 22 years to investigate how thinking can affect taste preference. They were given a taste preference task, where they were asked to try two brands of chocolate and answer a questionnaire and they were also given two periods of thought verbalisation where they would have to verbalise their thoughts while alone. Additionally, they were given specific topics to try to think or not to think about.
The results indicated that there is a clear behavioural rebound among both male and female participants and both males and females who suppressed thoughts of chocolate ate significantly more than those in the control condition. Secondly, for males, actively thinking about chocolate can enhance subsequent consumption of that food.
“These findings open the door to a whole host of potential candidates for such effects,” said Dr Erskine. “For example, does trying not to think about having another drink make it more likely, or does trying not to think, or to think aggressively lead to aggressive behaviour? These questions are vitally important if we are to understand the ways in which thought control engenders the very behaviour one wanted to avoid.”
The research paper, entitled "Resistance can be futile investigating behavioural rebound," by Dr James Erskine at the University’s School of Psychology, has just been published online at Appetite.
So chocolate is really an alien plot designed to eliminate all will power? We’re down.
Actually, we thought the longest living animal was Mel Brooks
Longest Living Animal? Clam -- 400 Years Old -- Found In Icelandic Waters
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2007) — A clam dredged from Icelandic waters had lived for 400 years - is this the longest-lived animal known to science.
Can you imagine living for four centuries? A team of scientists from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences believe they have found an animal which did just that, a quahog clam, Arctica islandica, which was living and growing on the seabed in the cold waters off the north coast of Iceland for around 400 years.
When this animal was a juvenile, King James I replaced Queen Elizabeth I as English monarch, Shakespeare was writing his greatest plays Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth and Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for espousing the view that the Sun rather than the Earth was the centre of the universe.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the existing record for the longest-lived animal belongs to a 220 year old Arctica clam collected in 1982 from American waters. Unofficially, the record belongs to a 374 year old Icelandic clam which was found in a museum. Both these records appear to have been eclipsed by the latest specimen, whose age, between 405 and 410 years, has been assessed by counting the annual growth lines in the shell.
The Bangor scientists are sclerochronologists who study the growth and age of clams using annual growth lines in the shell in much the same way as dendrochronologists study the growth of trees using tree-rings. Clam shell growth is related to environmental conditions such as seawater temperature, salinity and food availability. The team analyse the shell growth histories with a view to understanding changes in the ocean linked to climate change.
The clam was dredged up by Team members Paul Butler and James Scourse during a data collection cruise in Icelandic coastal waters in 2006 which formed part of the EU MILLENNIUM project investigating climate changes over the last 1000 years. The exciting discovery was made by postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker, the newest member of the ‘Arctica’ team. “Al and Paul rushed up to my office to announce that they had found a record-breaker,” said team member Chris Richardson. A detailed assessment later confirmed that, at 400 years, the clam had beaten the previous record by a massive 30 years!!
It is very likely that longer lived individuals of the species remain to be found. Although Icelandic waters seem to provide the ideal conditions for extreme longevity, clams with lifetimes well in excess of 200 years have been found both in the Irish Sea and the North Sea.
So why do these clams live so long? The Bangor scientists are intrigued to find out and believe that the clams may have evolved exceptionally effective defences which hold back the destructive ageing processes that normally occur. "If, in Arctica islandica, evolution has created a model of successful resistance to the damage of ageing, it is possible that an investigation of the tissues of these real life Methuselahs might help us to understand the processes of ageing," explains Chris.
Adapted from materials provided by Bangor University
Headline of the day (CNN)
Cow-killing meteorite sells for $1,554
The Valera Meteorite, noteworthy as the only space rock documented to have caused a fatality on Earth. Its victim in 1972 was a cow in Venezuela.
The other headline of the day (The Obscure Store)
Coach moons girls on opposing team after contentious game
Nothing like leading by example.
Yeah, sure. They said the same thing about Bigfoot.
Scientists say dark matter doesn't exist
By Ker Than
Staff Writer
Two Canadian astronomers think there is a good reason dark matter, a mysterious substance thought to make up the bulk of matter in the universe, has never been directly detected: It doesn't exist.
Dark matter was invoked to explain how galaxies stick together. The visible matter alone in galaxies — stars, gas and dust — is nowhere near enough to hold them together, so scientists reasoned there must be something invisible that exerts gravity and is central to all galaxies.
Last August, an astronomer at the University of Arizona at Tucson and his colleagues reported that a collision between two huge clusters of galaxies 3 billion light-years away, known as the Bullet Cluster, had caused clouds of dark matter to separate from normal matter. Many scientists said the observations were proof of dark matter's existence and a serious blow for alternative explanations aiming to do away with dark matter with modified theories of gravity.
Now John Moffat, an astronomer at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and Joel Brownstein, his graduate student, say those announcements were premature.
In a study detailed in the Nov. 21 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the pair says their Modified Gravity theory can explain the Bullet Cluster observation.
Using images of the Bullet Cluster made by the Hubble, Chandra X-ray and Spitzer space telescopes and the Magellan telescope in Chile, the scientists analyzed the way the cluster's gravity bent light from a background galaxy — an effect known as gravity lensing. The pair concluded that dark matter was not necessary to explain the results.
"Using Modified Gravity theory, the 'normal' matter in the Bullet Cluster is enough to account for the observed gravitational lensing effect," Brownstein said. "Continuing the search for and then analyzing other merging clusters of galaxies will help us decide whether dark matter or MOG theory offers the best explanation for the large scale structure of the universe."
Moffat compares the modern interest with dark matter to the insistence by scientists in the early 20th century on the existence of a "luminiferous ether," a hypothetical substance thought to fill the universe and through which light waves were thought to propagate.
"They saw a glimpse of special relativity, but they weren't willing to give up the ether," Moffat told SPACE.com. "Then Einstein came along and said we don't need the ether. The rest was history."
Douglas Clowe, the lead astronomer of the team that linked the Bullet Cluster observations with dark matter (and now at Ohio University), says he still stands by his original claim.
"As far as we're concerned, [Moffat] hasn't done anything that makes us retract our earlier statement that the Bullet Cluster shows us that we have to have dark matter," Clowe said. "We're still open to modifying gravity to reduce the amount of dark matter, but we're pretty sure that you have to have most of the mass of the universe still in some form of dark matter."
It’s all marketing. If they had only called it “gravy” instead of “dark matter” there wouldn’t be this problem. Besides, everyone knows the universe is held together by honey and post it notes.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Making Science More Better For You on 10/26/07
They were under a huge pile of unmatched socks
Missing Black Hole Report: Hundreds Found!
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2007) — Astronomers have unmasked hundreds of black holes hiding deep inside dusty galaxies billions of light-years away.
The massive, growing black holes, discovered by NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, represent a large fraction of a long-sought missing population. Their discovery implies there were hundreds of millions of additional black holes growing in our young universe, more than doubling the total amount known at that distance.
"Active, supermassive black holes were everywhere in the early universe," said Mark Dickinson of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. "We had seen the tip of the iceberg before in our search for these objects. Now, we can see the iceberg itself." Dickinson is a co-author of two new papers appearing in the Nov. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. Emanuele Daddi of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique in France led the research.
The findings are also the first direct evidence that most, if not all, massive galaxies in the distant universe spent their youths building monstrous black holes at their cores.
For decades, a large population of active black holes has been considered missing. These highly energetic structures belong to a class of black holes called quasars. A quasar consists of a doughnut-shaped cloud of gas and dust that surrounds and feeds a budding supermassive black hole. As the gas and dust are devoured by the black hole, they heat up and shoot out X-rays. Those X-rays can be detected as a general glow in space, but often the quasars themselves can't be seen directly because dust and gas blocks them from our view.
"We knew from other studies from about 30 years ago that there must be more quasars in the universe, but we didn't know where to find them until now," said Daddi.
Daddi and his team initially set out to study 1,000 dusty, massive galaxies that are busy making stars and were thought to lack quasars. The galaxies are about the same mass as our own spiral Milky Way galaxy, but irregular in shape. At 9 to 11 billion light-years away, they existed at a time when the universe was in its adolescence, between 2.5 and 4.5 billion years old.
When the astronomers peered more closely at the galaxies with Spitzer's infrared eyes, they noticed that about 200 of the galaxies gave off an unusual amount of infrared light. X-ray data from Chandra, and a technique called "stacking," revealed the galaxies were, in fact, hiding plump quasars inside. The scientists now think that the quasars heat the dust in their surrounding doughnut clouds, releasing the excess infrared light.
"We found most of the population of hidden quasars in the early universe," said Daddi. Previously, only the rarest and most energetic of these hidden black holes had been seen at this early epoch.
The newfound quasars are helping answer fundamental questions about how massive galaxies evolve. For instance, astronomers have learned that most massive galaxies steadily build up their stars and black holes simultaneously until they get too big and their black holes suppress star formation.
The observations also suggest that collisions between galaxies might not play as large a role in galaxy evolution as previously believed. "Theorists thought that mergers between galaxies were required to initiate this quasar activity, but we now see that quasars can be active in unharassed galaxies," said co-author David Alexander of Durham University, United Kingdom.
"It's as if we were blindfolded studying the elephant before, and we weren't sure what kind of animal we had," added co-author David Elbaz of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique. "Now, we can see the elephant for the first time."
The new observations were made as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, the most sensitive survey to date of the distant universe at multiple wavelengths.
Consistent results were recently obtained by Fabrizio Fiore of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy, and his team. Their results will appear in the Jan. 1, 2008, issue of Astrophysical Journal.
Maybe they should have put their picture on a milk carton.
Headline of the day
Police arrest man found in bathroom with blow-up doll (the Obscure Store)
"Well, you told us to get a room."
Breaking news: being fat doesn’t make you happy
Ideal weight varies, but obese unhappy
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Different cultures have different standards for the body, but overweight children of all ethnicities are unsatisfied with how they look, a U.S. study says.
Some cultures celebrate a fuller body shape more than others, but researchers at the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Philadelphia found that an overweight or obese child can still be unhappy with his or her body, despite acceptance from within his or her ethnic group.
Asian children had the highest levels of dissatisfaction with being overweight among all ethnic groups tested, study leader Gary Foster said.
"Culturally speaking, the ideal body shape is a lean one among Asian children," Foster said in a statement. "In African-American and Latino cultures, being lean is not always the ideal."
The researchers looked at data collected from 1,200 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders in 10 Philadelphia schools to determine the level of children's satisfaction with their body image.
The findings were presented in New Orleans at The North American Association for the Study of Obesity's annual scientific meeting.
This lab, are there golden arches outside?
Supersize elements created in lab
By Cristina Jimenez
US researchers have created exotic new versions of atomic nuclei including one previously thought to not exist.
The three new isotopes of magnesium and aluminium suggest other heavy variants of everyday elements could be created.
The new nuclei existed for only a fraction of a second and were created by smashing atoms at half the speed of light in a particle accelerator.
The work, published in the journal Nature, may give astrophysicists insights into the workings of stars.
"There is a second way to create super heavy nuclei: explosions in stars," said Paul Henri Heenen, a nuclear physicist at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
The lab experiments mimic these violent events and therefore can give astrophysicists clues about stellar processes.
The experiments will also allow theoretical physicists to test the validity of their nuclear models.
"The limit of stability of matter may be further out than previously expected," wrote Professor Dave Morrissey, one of the authors of the paper.
"It shows how much mystery remains about atomic nuclei."
Chasing heavier atoms
Physicists have known since the beginning of the 20th Century that the atomic nucleus is formed from two basic particles - protons and neutrons - that are held together by a strong nuclear force.
It is also an established fact that every atom of the same chemical element has a unique number of protons, but can have different number of neutrons - when that happens the two atoms are called isotopes.
But from the 1930s, scientists studying nuclear forces have been trying to establish the limit of how many neutrons a given number of protons can bind, a basic property of matter known as the neutron-drip line.
"The knowledge of these drip lines is crucial to our understanding of the force that binds a nucleus," said Professor Heenen
But even today, scientists are not sure exactly which combinations of protons and neutrons can make up most atomic nuclei.
One way of addressing this question is to find out how many neutrons can be artificially loaded on to nuclei of so-called quotidian elements, which contain the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
Accelerating particles
This is done using a circular particle accelerator known as a cyclotron that bombards heavy atoms with other materials at very high speeds. This triggers nuclear reactions that break the initial atoms into pieces and create new heavy nuclei.
Using this technique, the Michigan State University team created and detected a super heavy isotope of magnesium, magnesium-40, containing 12 protons and 28 neutrons.
Magnesium usually contains 12 neutrons.
They also found heavier counterparts of aluminium - aluminium-42, with 13 protons and 29 neutrons and aluminium-43, with 13 protons and 30 neutrons. Aluminium normally contains 14 neutrons.
Current theories suggested aluminium-42 was unlikely to exist.
"At this point, we can't define the end of magnesium and aluminium isotopes," said Dr Morrissey.
"We need to upgrade the measurement and detection techniques for the next experiments which will allow us to detect even more heavier isotopes," he added.
"You want the really large drink? Well, our really large is called "the cosmic."
It’s all fun and games until somebody’s eye gets poked out..and giant spiders crawl out of the sewer.
Synthetic life 'no terror threat'
By Cristina Jimenez
Science reporter
Craig Venter
Dr Venter could be on the cusp of creating life
Synthetic biology can help in the fight against emerging infections, rather than aid the design of bioweapons, controversial scientist Craig Venter has told reporters.
The US scientist, who led the private sector race to map the human genome, used a briefing in central London to allay fears that his work may fall into the wrong hands.
Critics of Dr Venter's research, which aims to design the world's first synthetic life, have expressed concern.
They say that artificial microbes may have dangerous consequences, such as either escaping into the environment or being used to manufacture bioweapons.
"If Venter succeeds in creating a working bacteria then he also lifts the lid on creating bacterial bioweapons, such as anthrax, in the near future," said Jim Thomas of the ETC Group, a Canadian campaign group that has concerns over the development of genetic technology.
When there is a big shift of knowledge, we go through a cycle of fear, in which people are afraid of the unknown
Dr Craig Venter
"An equally real concern in the longer term is bio-error, the synthetic creation of organisms that escape out of our control," he added.
Dr Venter insisted that such worries about synthetic organisms were unfounded.
He maintained that antibiotic-resistant infections, such as MRSA, were much more of a threat.
According to the maverick scientist, synthetic biology could provide the most effective way of stopping infections in developing countries, such as malaria, and emerging drug-resistant superbugs.
"In the US, MRSA kills more people than Aids," he said.
Campaigners say that there are currently no international laws or oversight mechanisms to assess the safety of synthetic organisms.
They suggest that an international process is needed to put in place controls before anything is commercialised.
Dr Venter defended himself against any claims that he was exploiting the human genome for financial gain.
"If you look at the record, my institution has no human gene patents, yet my biggest critics do," he said. "The Human Gene Project has human gene patents."
In an effort to explain why his work had attracted so much critical attention, he pointed out that a similar controversy occurred at the beginning of the molecular biology era.
He said: "When there is a big shift of knowledge, we go through a cycle of fear, in which people are afraid of the unknown."
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.” We would add ..”and certainty.”
Missing Black Hole Report: Hundreds Found!
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2007) — Astronomers have unmasked hundreds of black holes hiding deep inside dusty galaxies billions of light-years away.
The massive, growing black holes, discovered by NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, represent a large fraction of a long-sought missing population. Their discovery implies there were hundreds of millions of additional black holes growing in our young universe, more than doubling the total amount known at that distance.
"Active, supermassive black holes were everywhere in the early universe," said Mark Dickinson of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. "We had seen the tip of the iceberg before in our search for these objects. Now, we can see the iceberg itself." Dickinson is a co-author of two new papers appearing in the Nov. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. Emanuele Daddi of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique in France led the research.
The findings are also the first direct evidence that most, if not all, massive galaxies in the distant universe spent their youths building monstrous black holes at their cores.
For decades, a large population of active black holes has been considered missing. These highly energetic structures belong to a class of black holes called quasars. A quasar consists of a doughnut-shaped cloud of gas and dust that surrounds and feeds a budding supermassive black hole. As the gas and dust are devoured by the black hole, they heat up and shoot out X-rays. Those X-rays can be detected as a general glow in space, but often the quasars themselves can't be seen directly because dust and gas blocks them from our view.
"We knew from other studies from about 30 years ago that there must be more quasars in the universe, but we didn't know where to find them until now," said Daddi.
Daddi and his team initially set out to study 1,000 dusty, massive galaxies that are busy making stars and were thought to lack quasars. The galaxies are about the same mass as our own spiral Milky Way galaxy, but irregular in shape. At 9 to 11 billion light-years away, they existed at a time when the universe was in its adolescence, between 2.5 and 4.5 billion years old.
When the astronomers peered more closely at the galaxies with Spitzer's infrared eyes, they noticed that about 200 of the galaxies gave off an unusual amount of infrared light. X-ray data from Chandra, and a technique called "stacking," revealed the galaxies were, in fact, hiding plump quasars inside. The scientists now think that the quasars heat the dust in their surrounding doughnut clouds, releasing the excess infrared light.
"We found most of the population of hidden quasars in the early universe," said Daddi. Previously, only the rarest and most energetic of these hidden black holes had been seen at this early epoch.
The newfound quasars are helping answer fundamental questions about how massive galaxies evolve. For instance, astronomers have learned that most massive galaxies steadily build up their stars and black holes simultaneously until they get too big and their black holes suppress star formation.
The observations also suggest that collisions between galaxies might not play as large a role in galaxy evolution as previously believed. "Theorists thought that mergers between galaxies were required to initiate this quasar activity, but we now see that quasars can be active in unharassed galaxies," said co-author David Alexander of Durham University, United Kingdom.
"It's as if we were blindfolded studying the elephant before, and we weren't sure what kind of animal we had," added co-author David Elbaz of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique. "Now, we can see the elephant for the first time."
The new observations were made as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, the most sensitive survey to date of the distant universe at multiple wavelengths.
Consistent results were recently obtained by Fabrizio Fiore of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy, and his team. Their results will appear in the Jan. 1, 2008, issue of Astrophysical Journal.
Maybe they should have put their picture on a milk carton.
Headline of the day
Police arrest man found in bathroom with blow-up doll (the Obscure Store)
"Well, you told us to get a room."
Breaking news: being fat doesn’t make you happy
Ideal weight varies, but obese unhappy
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Different cultures have different standards for the body, but overweight children of all ethnicities are unsatisfied with how they look, a U.S. study says.
Some cultures celebrate a fuller body shape more than others, but researchers at the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Philadelphia found that an overweight or obese child can still be unhappy with his or her body, despite acceptance from within his or her ethnic group.
Asian children had the highest levels of dissatisfaction with being overweight among all ethnic groups tested, study leader Gary Foster said.
"Culturally speaking, the ideal body shape is a lean one among Asian children," Foster said in a statement. "In African-American and Latino cultures, being lean is not always the ideal."
The researchers looked at data collected from 1,200 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders in 10 Philadelphia schools to determine the level of children's satisfaction with their body image.
The findings were presented in New Orleans at The North American Association for the Study of Obesity's annual scientific meeting.
This lab, are there golden arches outside?
Supersize elements created in lab
By Cristina Jimenez
US researchers have created exotic new versions of atomic nuclei including one previously thought to not exist.
The three new isotopes of magnesium and aluminium suggest other heavy variants of everyday elements could be created.
The new nuclei existed for only a fraction of a second and were created by smashing atoms at half the speed of light in a particle accelerator.
The work, published in the journal Nature, may give astrophysicists insights into the workings of stars.
"There is a second way to create super heavy nuclei: explosions in stars," said Paul Henri Heenen, a nuclear physicist at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
The lab experiments mimic these violent events and therefore can give astrophysicists clues about stellar processes.
The experiments will also allow theoretical physicists to test the validity of their nuclear models.
"The limit of stability of matter may be further out than previously expected," wrote Professor Dave Morrissey, one of the authors of the paper.
"It shows how much mystery remains about atomic nuclei."
Chasing heavier atoms
Physicists have known since the beginning of the 20th Century that the atomic nucleus is formed from two basic particles - protons and neutrons - that are held together by a strong nuclear force.
It is also an established fact that every atom of the same chemical element has a unique number of protons, but can have different number of neutrons - when that happens the two atoms are called isotopes.
But from the 1930s, scientists studying nuclear forces have been trying to establish the limit of how many neutrons a given number of protons can bind, a basic property of matter known as the neutron-drip line.
"The knowledge of these drip lines is crucial to our understanding of the force that binds a nucleus," said Professor Heenen
But even today, scientists are not sure exactly which combinations of protons and neutrons can make up most atomic nuclei.
One way of addressing this question is to find out how many neutrons can be artificially loaded on to nuclei of so-called quotidian elements, which contain the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
Accelerating particles
This is done using a circular particle accelerator known as a cyclotron that bombards heavy atoms with other materials at very high speeds. This triggers nuclear reactions that break the initial atoms into pieces and create new heavy nuclei.
Using this technique, the Michigan State University team created and detected a super heavy isotope of magnesium, magnesium-40, containing 12 protons and 28 neutrons.
Magnesium usually contains 12 neutrons.
They also found heavier counterparts of aluminium - aluminium-42, with 13 protons and 29 neutrons and aluminium-43, with 13 protons and 30 neutrons. Aluminium normally contains 14 neutrons.
Current theories suggested aluminium-42 was unlikely to exist.
"At this point, we can't define the end of magnesium and aluminium isotopes," said Dr Morrissey.
"We need to upgrade the measurement and detection techniques for the next experiments which will allow us to detect even more heavier isotopes," he added.
"You want the really large drink? Well, our really large is called "the cosmic."
It’s all fun and games until somebody’s eye gets poked out..and giant spiders crawl out of the sewer.
Synthetic life 'no terror threat'
By Cristina Jimenez
Science reporter
Craig Venter
Dr Venter could be on the cusp of creating life
Synthetic biology can help in the fight against emerging infections, rather than aid the design of bioweapons, controversial scientist Craig Venter has told reporters.
The US scientist, who led the private sector race to map the human genome, used a briefing in central London to allay fears that his work may fall into the wrong hands.
Critics of Dr Venter's research, which aims to design the world's first synthetic life, have expressed concern.
They say that artificial microbes may have dangerous consequences, such as either escaping into the environment or being used to manufacture bioweapons.
"If Venter succeeds in creating a working bacteria then he also lifts the lid on creating bacterial bioweapons, such as anthrax, in the near future," said Jim Thomas of the ETC Group, a Canadian campaign group that has concerns over the development of genetic technology.
When there is a big shift of knowledge, we go through a cycle of fear, in which people are afraid of the unknown
Dr Craig Venter
"An equally real concern in the longer term is bio-error, the synthetic creation of organisms that escape out of our control," he added.
Dr Venter insisted that such worries about synthetic organisms were unfounded.
He maintained that antibiotic-resistant infections, such as MRSA, were much more of a threat.
According to the maverick scientist, synthetic biology could provide the most effective way of stopping infections in developing countries, such as malaria, and emerging drug-resistant superbugs.
"In the US, MRSA kills more people than Aids," he said.
Campaigners say that there are currently no international laws or oversight mechanisms to assess the safety of synthetic organisms.
They suggest that an international process is needed to put in place controls before anything is commercialised.
Dr Venter defended himself against any claims that he was exploiting the human genome for financial gain.
"If you look at the record, my institution has no human gene patents, yet my biggest critics do," he said. "The Human Gene Project has human gene patents."
In an effort to explain why his work had attracted so much critical attention, he pointed out that a similar controversy occurred at the beginning of the molecular biology era.
He said: "When there is a big shift of knowledge, we go through a cycle of fear, in which people are afraid of the unknown."
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.” We would add ..”and certainty.”
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Making Science More Better for You on 10/25/07
Headline of the day
Alarming Rise In Naked Hotel Sleepwalkers...
(Matt Drudge)
The other headline of the day
Couple struck and killed after getting out of car to argue (The Obscure Store)
See, it's nice to be nice
So does this make it hot to be cold?
MSNBC reports that Phoenix news site azcentral.com reveals that hotel heiress Paris Hilton is looking forward to an afterlife of suspended animation at the Cryonics Institute, accompanied Egyptian-style with her darling doggies, including Chihuahua Tinkerbell and Yorkie Cinderella.
"It's so cool,” Paris enthused. According to azcentral.com, the blonde celebutante invested thousands in her frigid future. “Almost all the cells in the body are still alive when death is pronounced. And if you're immediately cooled, you can be perfectly preserved.” Just think of it, kids! "My life could be extended by hundreds and thousands of years."
Admit it, the story conjures of the vision of Ms. Hilton, in a frozen galaxy far away, doing the dance of Salome with the head of that other fan of freezing, baseball immortal Ted Williams, on a silver platter. No? Well, it does for us.
We always knew politics was too much monkey business
Humans And Monkeys Share Machiavellian Intelligence
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2007) — When it comes to their social behavior, people sometimes act like monkeys, or more specifically, like rhesus macaques, a type of monkey that shares with humans strong tendencies for nepotism and political maneuvering, according to research by Dario Maestripieri, an expert on primate behavior and an Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.
"After humans, rhesus macaques are one of the most successful primate species on our planet; our Machiavellian intelligence may be one of the reasons for our success" wrote Maestripieri.*
Maestripieri has been studying monkeys for more than 20 years and has written extensively on their behavior. He has studied them in Europe, at a research center in Atlanta, and on an island in Puerto Rico, where researchers established a rhesus macaque colony for scientific and breeding purposes.
Rhesus macaques live in complex societies with strong dominance hierarchies and long-lasting social bonds between female relatives. Individuals constantly compete for high social status and the power that comes with it using ruthless aggression, nepotism, and complex political alliances. Sex, too, can be used for political purposes. The tactics used by monkeys to increase or maintain their power are not much different from those Machiavelli suggested political leaders use during the Renaissance.
Alpha males, who rule the 50 or so macaques in the troop, use threats and violence to hold on to the safest sleeping places, the best food, and access to the females in the group with whom they want to have sex. Like human dictators intent on holding power, dominant monkeys use frequent and unpredictable aggression as an effective form of intimidation. Less powerful members of the rhesus macaque group are marginalized and forced to live on the edges of the group's area, where they are vulnerable to predator attacks. They must wait for the others to eat first and then have the leftovers; they have sex only when the dominant monkeys are not looking.
"In rhesus society, dominants always travel in business class and subordinates in economy, and if the flight is overbooked, it's the subordinates who get bumped off the plane," Maestripieri said. "Social status can make the difference between life and death in human societies too," he pointed out. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, for instance, the poorer members of the community accounted for most of the hurricane's death toll.
Male macaques form alliances with more powerful individuals, and take part in scapegoating on the lower end of the hierarchy, a Machiavellian strategy that a mid-ranking monkey can use when under attack from a higher-ranking one. Altruism is rare and, in most cases, only a form of nepotistic behavior. Mothers help their daughters achieve a status similar to their own and to maintain it throughout their lives. Females act in Machiavellian ways also when it comes to reproduction. They make sure they have lots of sex with the alpha male to increase the chances he will protect their newborn infant from other monkeys 6 months later.
"But while they have lots of sex with the alpha male and make him think he's going to be the father of their baby, the females also have sex with all the other males in the group behind the alpha male's back," Maestripieri said. They do so just in case the alpha male is sterile or he dies or loses his power before the baby is born.
Struggles for power within a group sometimes culminate in a revolution, in which all members of the most dominant family are suddenly attacked by entire families of subordinates. These revolutions result in drastic changes in the structure of power within rhesus societies, not unlike those occurring following human revolutions. There is one situation, however, in which all of the well-established social structure evaporates: when a group of rhesus macaques confronts another one and monkey warfare begins. Rhesus macaques dislike strangers and will viciously attack their own image in a mirror, thinking it's a stranger threatening them. When warfare begins, "Even a low-ranking rhesus loner becomes an instant patriot. Every drop of xenophobia in rhesus blood is transformed into fuel for battle," Maestripieri wrote.
"What rhesus macaques and humans may have in common is that many of their psychological and behavioral dispositions have been shaped by intense competition between individuals and groups during the evolutionary history of these species" Maestripieri said. Rhesus groups can function like armies, and this may explain why these monkeys have been so successful in the competition with other primates.
Pressure to find Machiavellian solutions to social problems may also have led to the evolution of larger human brains.
"Our Machiavellian intelligence is not something we can be proud of, but it may be the secret of our success. If it contributed to the evolution of our large brains and complex cognitive skills, it also contributed to the evolution of our ability to engage in noble spiritual and intellectual activities, including our love and compassion for other people", Maestripieri said.
“Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day , accept this banana as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day. Eeeek."
I was kind of sad, now I’m just freakin’ hungry
Cannabis: Potent Anti-depressant In Low Doses, Worsens Depression At High Doses
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — A new neurobiological study has found that a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, is an effective anti-depressant at low doses. However, at higher doses, the effect reverses itself and can actually worsen depression and other psychiatric conditions like psychosis.
It has been known for many years that depletion of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain leads to depression, so SSRI-class anti-depressants like Prozac and Celexa work by enhancing the available concentration of serotonin in the brain. However, this study offers the first evidence that cannabis can also increase serotonin, at least at lower doses.
Laboratory animals were injected with the synthetic cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 and then tested with the Forced Swim test -- a test to measure "depression" in animals; the researchers observed an antidepressant effect of cannabinoids paralleled by an increased activity in the neurons that produce serotonin. However, increasing the cannabinoid dose beyond a set point completely undid the benefits, said Dr. Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University.
"Low doses had a potent anti-depressant effect, but when we increased the dose, the serotonin in the rats' brains actually dropped below the level of those in the control group. So we actually demonstrated a double effect: At low doses it increases serotonin, but at higher doses the effect is devastating, completely reversed."
The anti-depressant and intoxicating effects of cannabis are due to its chemical similarity to natural substances in the brain known as "endo-cannabinoids," which are released under conditions of high stress or pain, explained Dr. Gobbi. They interact with the brain through structures called cannabinoid CB1 receptors. This study demonstrates for the first time that these receptors have a direct effect on the cells producing serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that regulates the mood.
Dr. Gobbi and her colleagues were prompted to explore cannabis' potential as an anti-depressant through anecdotal clinical evidence, she said. "As a psychiatrist, I noticed that several of my patients suffering from depression used to smoke cannabis. And in the scientific literature, we had some evidence that people treated with cannabis for multiple sclerosis or AIDS showed a big improvement in mood disorders. But there were no laboratory studies demonstrating the anti-depressant mechanism of action of cannabis."
Because controlling the dosage of natural cannabis is difficult -- particularly when it is smoked in the form of marijuana joints -- there are perils associated with using it directly as an anti-depressant.
"Excessive cannabis use in people with depression poses high risk of psychosis," said Dr. Gobbi. Instead, she and her colleagues are focusing their research on a new class of drugs which enhance the effects of the brain's natural endo-cannabinoids.
"We know that it's entirely possible to produce drugs which will enhance endo-cannabinoids for the treatment of pain, depression and anxiety," she said.
Thank you Dr. Cheech. Dr. Chong, is there anything you wish to add?
Alarming Rise In Naked Hotel Sleepwalkers...
(Matt Drudge)
The other headline of the day
Couple struck and killed after getting out of car to argue (The Obscure Store)
See, it's nice to be nice
So does this make it hot to be cold?
MSNBC reports that Phoenix news site azcentral.com reveals that hotel heiress Paris Hilton is looking forward to an afterlife of suspended animation at the Cryonics Institute, accompanied Egyptian-style with her darling doggies, including Chihuahua Tinkerbell and Yorkie Cinderella.
"It's so cool,” Paris enthused. According to azcentral.com, the blonde celebutante invested thousands in her frigid future. “Almost all the cells in the body are still alive when death is pronounced. And if you're immediately cooled, you can be perfectly preserved.” Just think of it, kids! "My life could be extended by hundreds and thousands of years."
Admit it, the story conjures of the vision of Ms. Hilton, in a frozen galaxy far away, doing the dance of Salome with the head of that other fan of freezing, baseball immortal Ted Williams, on a silver platter. No? Well, it does for us.
We always knew politics was too much monkey business
Humans And Monkeys Share Machiavellian Intelligence
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2007) — When it comes to their social behavior, people sometimes act like monkeys, or more specifically, like rhesus macaques, a type of monkey that shares with humans strong tendencies for nepotism and political maneuvering, according to research by Dario Maestripieri, an expert on primate behavior and an Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.
"After humans, rhesus macaques are one of the most successful primate species on our planet; our Machiavellian intelligence may be one of the reasons for our success" wrote Maestripieri.*
Maestripieri has been studying monkeys for more than 20 years and has written extensively on their behavior. He has studied them in Europe, at a research center in Atlanta, and on an island in Puerto Rico, where researchers established a rhesus macaque colony for scientific and breeding purposes.
Rhesus macaques live in complex societies with strong dominance hierarchies and long-lasting social bonds between female relatives. Individuals constantly compete for high social status and the power that comes with it using ruthless aggression, nepotism, and complex political alliances. Sex, too, can be used for political purposes. The tactics used by monkeys to increase or maintain their power are not much different from those Machiavelli suggested political leaders use during the Renaissance.
Alpha males, who rule the 50 or so macaques in the troop, use threats and violence to hold on to the safest sleeping places, the best food, and access to the females in the group with whom they want to have sex. Like human dictators intent on holding power, dominant monkeys use frequent and unpredictable aggression as an effective form of intimidation. Less powerful members of the rhesus macaque group are marginalized and forced to live on the edges of the group's area, where they are vulnerable to predator attacks. They must wait for the others to eat first and then have the leftovers; they have sex only when the dominant monkeys are not looking.
"In rhesus society, dominants always travel in business class and subordinates in economy, and if the flight is overbooked, it's the subordinates who get bumped off the plane," Maestripieri said. "Social status can make the difference between life and death in human societies too," he pointed out. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, for instance, the poorer members of the community accounted for most of the hurricane's death toll.
Male macaques form alliances with more powerful individuals, and take part in scapegoating on the lower end of the hierarchy, a Machiavellian strategy that a mid-ranking monkey can use when under attack from a higher-ranking one. Altruism is rare and, in most cases, only a form of nepotistic behavior. Mothers help their daughters achieve a status similar to their own and to maintain it throughout their lives. Females act in Machiavellian ways also when it comes to reproduction. They make sure they have lots of sex with the alpha male to increase the chances he will protect their newborn infant from other monkeys 6 months later.
"But while they have lots of sex with the alpha male and make him think he's going to be the father of their baby, the females also have sex with all the other males in the group behind the alpha male's back," Maestripieri said. They do so just in case the alpha male is sterile or he dies or loses his power before the baby is born.
Struggles for power within a group sometimes culminate in a revolution, in which all members of the most dominant family are suddenly attacked by entire families of subordinates. These revolutions result in drastic changes in the structure of power within rhesus societies, not unlike those occurring following human revolutions. There is one situation, however, in which all of the well-established social structure evaporates: when a group of rhesus macaques confronts another one and monkey warfare begins. Rhesus macaques dislike strangers and will viciously attack their own image in a mirror, thinking it's a stranger threatening them. When warfare begins, "Even a low-ranking rhesus loner becomes an instant patriot. Every drop of xenophobia in rhesus blood is transformed into fuel for battle," Maestripieri wrote.
"What rhesus macaques and humans may have in common is that many of their psychological and behavioral dispositions have been shaped by intense competition between individuals and groups during the evolutionary history of these species" Maestripieri said. Rhesus groups can function like armies, and this may explain why these monkeys have been so successful in the competition with other primates.
Pressure to find Machiavellian solutions to social problems may also have led to the evolution of larger human brains.
"Our Machiavellian intelligence is not something we can be proud of, but it may be the secret of our success. If it contributed to the evolution of our large brains and complex cognitive skills, it also contributed to the evolution of our ability to engage in noble spiritual and intellectual activities, including our love and compassion for other people", Maestripieri said.
“Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day , accept this banana as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day. Eeeek."
I was kind of sad, now I’m just freakin’ hungry
Cannabis: Potent Anti-depressant In Low Doses, Worsens Depression At High Doses
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — A new neurobiological study has found that a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, is an effective anti-depressant at low doses. However, at higher doses, the effect reverses itself and can actually worsen depression and other psychiatric conditions like psychosis.
It has been known for many years that depletion of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain leads to depression, so SSRI-class anti-depressants like Prozac and Celexa work by enhancing the available concentration of serotonin in the brain. However, this study offers the first evidence that cannabis can also increase serotonin, at least at lower doses.
Laboratory animals were injected with the synthetic cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 and then tested with the Forced Swim test -- a test to measure "depression" in animals; the researchers observed an antidepressant effect of cannabinoids paralleled by an increased activity in the neurons that produce serotonin. However, increasing the cannabinoid dose beyond a set point completely undid the benefits, said Dr. Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University.
"Low doses had a potent anti-depressant effect, but when we increased the dose, the serotonin in the rats' brains actually dropped below the level of those in the control group. So we actually demonstrated a double effect: At low doses it increases serotonin, but at higher doses the effect is devastating, completely reversed."
The anti-depressant and intoxicating effects of cannabis are due to its chemical similarity to natural substances in the brain known as "endo-cannabinoids," which are released under conditions of high stress or pain, explained Dr. Gobbi. They interact with the brain through structures called cannabinoid CB1 receptors. This study demonstrates for the first time that these receptors have a direct effect on the cells producing serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that regulates the mood.
Dr. Gobbi and her colleagues were prompted to explore cannabis' potential as an anti-depressant through anecdotal clinical evidence, she said. "As a psychiatrist, I noticed that several of my patients suffering from depression used to smoke cannabis. And in the scientific literature, we had some evidence that people treated with cannabis for multiple sclerosis or AIDS showed a big improvement in mood disorders. But there were no laboratory studies demonstrating the anti-depressant mechanism of action of cannabis."
Because controlling the dosage of natural cannabis is difficult -- particularly when it is smoked in the form of marijuana joints -- there are perils associated with using it directly as an anti-depressant.
"Excessive cannabis use in people with depression poses high risk of psychosis," said Dr. Gobbi. Instead, she and her colleagues are focusing their research on a new class of drugs which enhance the effects of the brain's natural endo-cannabinoids.
"We know that it's entirely possible to produce drugs which will enhance endo-cannabinoids for the treatment of pain, depression and anxiety," she said.
Thank you Dr. Cheech. Dr. Chong, is there anything you wish to add?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Making Science More Better For You on 10/24/07
Not to mention cable and better toilets. Remember, those who ignore the past, ignore the past.
Britain Is More Energy Efficient Today Than In Time Of Shakespeare
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — Restricting energy use is the only way to tackle climate change, according to new research by a historian at the University of East Anglia.
Dr Paul Warde argues that policies focused on energy efficiency are unlikely to produce the cuts in consumption needed to control carbon emissions. His paper Facing the challenge of climate change: energy efficiency and energy consumption is published in the journal History and Policy.
Politicians have hailed energy-saving technology as a solution to climate change and current EU environmental policy aims to cut energy use by 20 per cent by improving energy efficiency. Dr Warde’s research shows that energy efficiency improvements of this order are easily achievable, having occurred in the 1920s, 1950s, and again in the 1980s, but on their own have had little impact on climate change.
He argues that even if energy efficiency is improved it will not offset the overall dynamic of economic growth; carbon emissions will still increase. Increasing energy efficiency will only make energy-intensive development even more attractive.
Dr Warde said: “Since the late 19th century Britain’s energy efficiency has improved considerably. We are more energy efficient now than we were in Shakespeare's time, and far more efficient than during the industrial revolution. Although we are over three times more energy efficient than we were in the 1880s, we each consume about a third more energy, so carbon emissions keep rising.
“History suggests that we cannot rely on the transition to biofuels and renewable energy sources to cut our carbon footprint. To return to an ‘organic economy’ and supply our total energy needs from biofuels, each hectare of European land would have to be 30 times more productive than it was 200 years ago. While the history of our transition from coal to oil-dependency suggests that a significant shift to renewable energy sources would require an extraordinary and unprecedented growth in their use, driven by huge incentives and political willpower.
“The bottom line is that technology can’t contend with the realities of climate change. The only effective solution is to curb consumption. To stand a chance of meeting emissions targets, politicians need to switch their attention from energy efficiency to controls on consumption.”
Dr Warde’s analysis of four centuries of energy consumption and economic growth in England and Wales reveals:
* Per capita energy consumption in Europe is about 10 times higher than it was under the wood-fuelled ‘organic economy’, although the population is only three times larger than it was 200 years ago. This suggests that a return to an organic economy through the widespread use of biofuels is not feasible.
* From the early 17th century, coal began replacing wood as the primary source of fuel, but even at this early stage pamphleteers warned that coal could not be relied upon in the long-term because, unlike wood, it was non-renewable.
* By 1700 coal was providing the majority of England and Wales’ energy. This led to periodic fears about its exhaustion and, in the early 1870s, a Royal Commission, which reported there were centuries of stocks remaining – a considerable under-estimate.
* From the 1890s, economic growth was driven by the use of electricity, but oil did not begin to take up a significant share of national consumption until the 1960s.
* Since the late 19th century, there have been frequent and significant energy efficiency improvements, but with growing prosperity and an increasingly energy-reliant economy, consumption has consistently outstripped any efficiency savings.
* Most historic efficiency gains have been in industry, but well over half of final energy consumption is now in homes and transport, where efficiency gains have been minimal and outpaced by the expansion of travel and the increasing number of households.
* There would have to be an extraordinary and unprecedented growth in the use of renewable energy sources to keep up with the continued expansion of energy use – even the transition from coal to oil took more than 50 years, shifting from 2 per cent of total energy supply in 1920 to 50 per cent in 1972.
Dr Warde is a reader in Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia and Research Associate at the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge.
Does the Early Modern History Department have a Jumbo Shrimp section?
While there is no global warming, the possibility of world-wide non-cooling does exist
Massive California Fires Consistent With Climate Change, Experts Say
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — The catastrophic fires that are sweeping Southern California are consistent with what climate change models have been predicting for years, experts say, and they may be just a prelude to many more such events in the future -- as vegetation grows heavier than usual and then ignites during prolonged drought periods.
See also:
"This is exactly what we've been projecting to happen, both in short-term fire forecasts for this year and the longer term patterns that can be linked to global climate change," said Ronald Neilson, a professor at Oregon State University and bioclimatologist with the USDA Forest Service.
"You can't look at one event such as this and say with certainty that it was caused by a changing climate," said Neilson, who was also a contributor to publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a co-recipient earlier this month of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
"But things just like this are consistent with what the latest modeling shows," Neilson said, "and may be another piece of evidence that climate change is a reality, one with serious effects."
The latest models, Neilson said, suggest that parts of the United States may be experiencing longer-term precipitation patterns -- less year-to-year variability, but rather several wet years in a row followed by several that are drier than normal.
"As the planet warms, more water is getting evaporated from the oceans and all that water has to come down somewhere as precipitation," said Neilson. "That can lead, at times, to heavier vegetation loads popping up and creation of a tremendous fuel load. But the warmth and other climatic forces are also going to create periodic droughts. If you get an ignition source during these periods, the fires can just become explosive."
The problems can be compounded, Neilson said, by El Niño or La Nina events. A La Niña episode that's currently under way is probably amplifying the Southern California drought, he said. But when rains return for a period of years, the burned vegetation may inevitably re-grow to very dense levels.
"In the future, catastrophic fires such as those going on now in California may simply be a normal part of the landscape," said Neilson.
Fire forecast models developed by Neilson's research group at OSU and the Forest Service rely on several global climate models. When combined, they accurately predicted both the Southern California fires that are happening and the drought that has recently hit parts of the Southeast, including Georgia and Florida, causing crippling water shortages.
In studies released five years ago, Neilson and other OSU researchers predicted that the American West could become both warmer and wetter in the coming century, conditions that would lead to repeated, catastrophic fires larger than any in recent history.
At that time, the scientists suggested that periodic increases in precipitation, in combination with higher temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels, would spur vegetation growth and add even further to existing fuel loads caused by decades of fire suppression.
Droughts or heat waves, the researchers said in 2002, would then lead to levels of wildfire larger than most observed since European settlement. The projections were based on various "general circulation" models that showed both global warming and precipitation increases during the 21st century.
Adapted from materials provided by Oregon State University.
We heard that Paris Hilton thinks climate change is so hot.
La la la I can’t hear you and if I could hear you it wouldn’t matter because those word thingies just mean what I want them to mean. And, beside, you’re a doody head.
Sources: White House cut CDC testimony
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House severely edited congressional testimony given Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks, according to two sources familiar with the documents.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based CDC, the government's premier disease monitoring agency, told a Senate hearing that climate change "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."
But her prepared testimony was devoted entirely to the CDC's preparation, with few details on what effects climate change could have on the spread of disease. Only during questioning did she describe some specific diseases that likely would be affected, again without elaboration.
Her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had much less information on health risks than a much longer draft version Gerberding submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review in advance of her appearance.
"It was eviscerated," said a CDC official, familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the review process.
The official said that while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly "heavy-handed," with the document cut from its original 14 pages to four. It was six pages as presented to the Senate committee.
The OMB had no comment on Gerberding's testimony.
"We generally don't speculate and comment on anything until it is the final product," said OMB spokesman Sean Kevelighan. He added that OMB reviews take into consideration "whether they ... line up well with the national priorities of the administration."
The CDC is part of the Department of Health and Human Services and its congressional testimony, as is normal with all agencies, is routinely reviewed by OMB.
But Gerberding, who could not be reached late Tuesday for comment, was said to have been surprised by the extensive changes. Copies of the original testimony already had been sent to a number of associated health groups representing states, county and city health agencies that the CDC routinely coordinates with, a CDC official said.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner sought to play down the White House changes. He called Gerberding's appearance before the Senate panel "very productive" and said she addressed the issues she wanted during her remarks and when questioned by the senators.
"What needed to be said as far we're concerned was said," said Skinner in a telephone interview from Atlanta. "She certainly communicated with the committee everything she felt was critical to help them appreciate and understand all the issues surrounding climate change and its potential impact on public health."
The deletions directed by the White House included details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming, according to one official who has seen the original version. Also deleted were the scientific basis for some of the CDC's analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea level, the official added.
Gerberding seems to have tried to address some of those issues during questioning from senators.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and the committee's chairman, produced a CDC chart listing the broad range of health problems that could emerge from a significant temperature increase and sea level rise
They include fatalities from heat stress and heart failure, increased injuries and deaths from severe weather such as hurricanes; more respiratory problems from drought-driven air pollution; an increase in waterborne diseases including cholera, and increases vector-borne diseases including malaria and hantavirus; and mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress.
"These are the potential things you can expect," replied Gerberding when asked about the items listed. "... In some of these areas its not a question of if. It's a question of who, what, how and when."
Peter Rafle, a spokesman for Boxer, said the senator knew nothing about changes that might have been made to Gerberding's testimony by the White House.
We think there might also be an increase in the number of people who come down with the vapors.
Britain Is More Energy Efficient Today Than In Time Of Shakespeare
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — Restricting energy use is the only way to tackle climate change, according to new research by a historian at the University of East Anglia.
Dr Paul Warde argues that policies focused on energy efficiency are unlikely to produce the cuts in consumption needed to control carbon emissions. His paper Facing the challenge of climate change: energy efficiency and energy consumption is published in the journal History and Policy.
Politicians have hailed energy-saving technology as a solution to climate change and current EU environmental policy aims to cut energy use by 20 per cent by improving energy efficiency. Dr Warde’s research shows that energy efficiency improvements of this order are easily achievable, having occurred in the 1920s, 1950s, and again in the 1980s, but on their own have had little impact on climate change.
He argues that even if energy efficiency is improved it will not offset the overall dynamic of economic growth; carbon emissions will still increase. Increasing energy efficiency will only make energy-intensive development even more attractive.
Dr Warde said: “Since the late 19th century Britain’s energy efficiency has improved considerably. We are more energy efficient now than we were in Shakespeare's time, and far more efficient than during the industrial revolution. Although we are over three times more energy efficient than we were in the 1880s, we each consume about a third more energy, so carbon emissions keep rising.
“History suggests that we cannot rely on the transition to biofuels and renewable energy sources to cut our carbon footprint. To return to an ‘organic economy’ and supply our total energy needs from biofuels, each hectare of European land would have to be 30 times more productive than it was 200 years ago. While the history of our transition from coal to oil-dependency suggests that a significant shift to renewable energy sources would require an extraordinary and unprecedented growth in their use, driven by huge incentives and political willpower.
“The bottom line is that technology can’t contend with the realities of climate change. The only effective solution is to curb consumption. To stand a chance of meeting emissions targets, politicians need to switch their attention from energy efficiency to controls on consumption.”
Dr Warde’s analysis of four centuries of energy consumption and economic growth in England and Wales reveals:
* Per capita energy consumption in Europe is about 10 times higher than it was under the wood-fuelled ‘organic economy’, although the population is only three times larger than it was 200 years ago. This suggests that a return to an organic economy through the widespread use of biofuels is not feasible.
* From the early 17th century, coal began replacing wood as the primary source of fuel, but even at this early stage pamphleteers warned that coal could not be relied upon in the long-term because, unlike wood, it was non-renewable.
* By 1700 coal was providing the majority of England and Wales’ energy. This led to periodic fears about its exhaustion and, in the early 1870s, a Royal Commission, which reported there were centuries of stocks remaining – a considerable under-estimate.
* From the 1890s, economic growth was driven by the use of electricity, but oil did not begin to take up a significant share of national consumption until the 1960s.
* Since the late 19th century, there have been frequent and significant energy efficiency improvements, but with growing prosperity and an increasingly energy-reliant economy, consumption has consistently outstripped any efficiency savings.
* Most historic efficiency gains have been in industry, but well over half of final energy consumption is now in homes and transport, where efficiency gains have been minimal and outpaced by the expansion of travel and the increasing number of households.
* There would have to be an extraordinary and unprecedented growth in the use of renewable energy sources to keep up with the continued expansion of energy use – even the transition from coal to oil took more than 50 years, shifting from 2 per cent of total energy supply in 1920 to 50 per cent in 1972.
Dr Warde is a reader in Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia and Research Associate at the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge.
Does the Early Modern History Department have a Jumbo Shrimp section?
While there is no global warming, the possibility of world-wide non-cooling does exist
Massive California Fires Consistent With Climate Change, Experts Say
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — The catastrophic fires that are sweeping Southern California are consistent with what climate change models have been predicting for years, experts say, and they may be just a prelude to many more such events in the future -- as vegetation grows heavier than usual and then ignites during prolonged drought periods.
See also:
"This is exactly what we've been projecting to happen, both in short-term fire forecasts for this year and the longer term patterns that can be linked to global climate change," said Ronald Neilson, a professor at Oregon State University and bioclimatologist with the USDA Forest Service.
"You can't look at one event such as this and say with certainty that it was caused by a changing climate," said Neilson, who was also a contributor to publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a co-recipient earlier this month of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
"But things just like this are consistent with what the latest modeling shows," Neilson said, "and may be another piece of evidence that climate change is a reality, one with serious effects."
The latest models, Neilson said, suggest that parts of the United States may be experiencing longer-term precipitation patterns -- less year-to-year variability, but rather several wet years in a row followed by several that are drier than normal.
"As the planet warms, more water is getting evaporated from the oceans and all that water has to come down somewhere as precipitation," said Neilson. "That can lead, at times, to heavier vegetation loads popping up and creation of a tremendous fuel load. But the warmth and other climatic forces are also going to create periodic droughts. If you get an ignition source during these periods, the fires can just become explosive."
The problems can be compounded, Neilson said, by El Niño or La Nina events. A La Niña episode that's currently under way is probably amplifying the Southern California drought, he said. But when rains return for a period of years, the burned vegetation may inevitably re-grow to very dense levels.
"In the future, catastrophic fires such as those going on now in California may simply be a normal part of the landscape," said Neilson.
Fire forecast models developed by Neilson's research group at OSU and the Forest Service rely on several global climate models. When combined, they accurately predicted both the Southern California fires that are happening and the drought that has recently hit parts of the Southeast, including Georgia and Florida, causing crippling water shortages.
In studies released five years ago, Neilson and other OSU researchers predicted that the American West could become both warmer and wetter in the coming century, conditions that would lead to repeated, catastrophic fires larger than any in recent history.
At that time, the scientists suggested that periodic increases in precipitation, in combination with higher temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels, would spur vegetation growth and add even further to existing fuel loads caused by decades of fire suppression.
Droughts or heat waves, the researchers said in 2002, would then lead to levels of wildfire larger than most observed since European settlement. The projections were based on various "general circulation" models that showed both global warming and precipitation increases during the 21st century.
Adapted from materials provided by Oregon State University.
We heard that Paris Hilton thinks climate change is so hot.
La la la I can’t hear you and if I could hear you it wouldn’t matter because those word thingies just mean what I want them to mean. And, beside, you’re a doody head.
Sources: White House cut CDC testimony
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House severely edited congressional testimony given Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks, according to two sources familiar with the documents.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based CDC, the government's premier disease monitoring agency, told a Senate hearing that climate change "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."
But her prepared testimony was devoted entirely to the CDC's preparation, with few details on what effects climate change could have on the spread of disease. Only during questioning did she describe some specific diseases that likely would be affected, again without elaboration.
Her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had much less information on health risks than a much longer draft version Gerberding submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review in advance of her appearance.
"It was eviscerated," said a CDC official, familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the review process.
The official said that while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly "heavy-handed," with the document cut from its original 14 pages to four. It was six pages as presented to the Senate committee.
The OMB had no comment on Gerberding's testimony.
"We generally don't speculate and comment on anything until it is the final product," said OMB spokesman Sean Kevelighan. He added that OMB reviews take into consideration "whether they ... line up well with the national priorities of the administration."
The CDC is part of the Department of Health and Human Services and its congressional testimony, as is normal with all agencies, is routinely reviewed by OMB.
But Gerberding, who could not be reached late Tuesday for comment, was said to have been surprised by the extensive changes. Copies of the original testimony already had been sent to a number of associated health groups representing states, county and city health agencies that the CDC routinely coordinates with, a CDC official said.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner sought to play down the White House changes. He called Gerberding's appearance before the Senate panel "very productive" and said she addressed the issues she wanted during her remarks and when questioned by the senators.
"What needed to be said as far we're concerned was said," said Skinner in a telephone interview from Atlanta. "She certainly communicated with the committee everything she felt was critical to help them appreciate and understand all the issues surrounding climate change and its potential impact on public health."
The deletions directed by the White House included details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming, according to one official who has seen the original version. Also deleted were the scientific basis for some of the CDC's analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea level, the official added.
Gerberding seems to have tried to address some of those issues during questioning from senators.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and the committee's chairman, produced a CDC chart listing the broad range of health problems that could emerge from a significant temperature increase and sea level rise
They include fatalities from heat stress and heart failure, increased injuries and deaths from severe weather such as hurricanes; more respiratory problems from drought-driven air pollution; an increase in waterborne diseases including cholera, and increases vector-borne diseases including malaria and hantavirus; and mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress.
"These are the potential things you can expect," replied Gerberding when asked about the items listed. "... In some of these areas its not a question of if. It's a question of who, what, how and when."
Peter Rafle, a spokesman for Boxer, said the senator knew nothing about changes that might have been made to Gerberding's testimony by the White House.
We think there might also be an increase in the number of people who come down with the vapors.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Making Science More Better For You on 10/23/07
Funny, Dick Cheney doesn’t look that old
A 3,000-year-old mystery is finally solved: Tutankhamun died in a hunting accident
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 22 October 2007
The mystery behind the sudden death of Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, may have been finally solved by scientists who believe that he fell from a fast-moving chariot while out hunting in the desert.
Speculation surrounding Tutankhamun's death has been rife since his tomb was broken into in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter. X-rays of the mummy taken in 1968 indicated a swelling at the base of the skull, suggesting "King Tut" was killed by a blow to the head.
More recent studies using a CT medical scanner, however, revealed he suffered a badly broken leg, just above his knee just before he died. That in turn probably led to lethal blood poisoning. Now further evidence has come to light suggesting that he suffered the fracture while hunting game from a chariot.
The new findings are still circumstantial but one of Egypt's leading experts on Tutankhamun will say in a television documentary to be screened this week that he believes the case is now solved on how the boy king met his sudden and unexpected end.
"He was not murdered as many people thought. He had an accident when he was hunting in the desert. Falling from a chariot made this fracture in his left leg and this really is in my opinion how he died," said Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Until now, many historians had assumed that he was treated as a rather fragile child who was cosseted and protected from physical danger. However, Nadia Lokma of the Cairo Museum said that a recent analysis of the chariots found in the tombs of the pharaohs indicated that they were not merely ceremonial but show signs of wear and tear. Hundreds of arrows recovered from the tomb also show evidence of having been fired and recovered. "These chariots are hunting chariots, not war chariots. You can see from the wear on them that they were actually used in life," Dr Lokma said.
A cache of clothing found in Tutankhamun's tomb, which was stored in the vaults of the Cairo Museum, suggest that he was accustomed to riding these chariots himself. They include a specially-adapted corset which would have protected the wearer's abdominal organs from any damage from an accident or the heavy jostling of a chariot ride.
A final piece of evidence comes from a garland of flowers placed around the neck of Tutankhamun's mummy. Botanists found it included cornflowers and mayweed that were fresh at the time the decoration was made.
"The cornflower and mayweed on the garland around the mummy were in flower in March and April, which tells us the time of year he was buried," said Nigel Hepper of the Royal Horticultural Society at Kew Gardens.
Because the flowers could have been collected only between the middle of March and the end of April, and as the complex process of mummification lasted 70 days, this meant Tutankhamun probably died in December or January. That timing coincided with the middle of the winter hunting season.
The results of the latest research into Tutankhamun, which are to feature in a Channel Five documentary tomorrow evening, come just a few weeks before Britain hosts the first exhibition of his tomb's artefacts in 35 years at The O2 centre, formerly the Millennium Dome, in south-east London.
When the first Tutankhamun exhibition in London was held at the British Museum in 1972, some 1.5 million people made the pilgrimage to see his fabulous solid-gold facemask. This time, however, the mask will remain in Egypt because of fears it might not withstand the trip.
The present-day Lord Carnarvon, whose ancestor paid for Howard Carter's 1922 expedition, said the latest findings indicated that Tutankhamun was an active young man who took risks with his life.
"I thought he was an over-cosseted child, but I think he was really out there in the field and taking part in things towards the end of his short life," Lord Carnarvon said. "His chariots could have reached considerable speeds, up to 25mph. If a chariot turns over at that speed, you could easily break your leg very seriously."
That's a tragedy, but a lot of funny things can happen when you're hunting from a chariot, if you know what I mean.
We always knew that that book learnin’ was overrated
More Educated People Who Develop Dementia Lose Their Memory Faster
ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2007) — People with more years of education lose their memory faster than those with less education in the years prior to a diagnosis of dementia, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
The study included 117 people who developed dementia out of an original cohort of 488. The researchers, led by Charles B. Hall, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology and population health at Einstein, followed study participants for an average of six years using annual cognitive tests. Study participants ranged in formal education levels of less than three years of elementary school to individuals with postgraduate education.
The study found for each additional year of formal education, the rapid accelerated memory decline associated with oncoming dementia was delayed by approximately two and one half months. However, once that accelerated decline commenced, the people with more education saw their rate of cognitive decline accelerate 4 percent faster for each additional year of education. The latter portion of this finding corroborates previous research, which had shown that people with more education had more rapid memory loss after diagnosis of dementia.
For example, a college graduate with 16 years of education, whose dementia is diagnosed at age 85, would have begun to experience accelerated memory decline 3.8 years earlier, at age 81, while a person with just four years of education, who is diagnosed at the same age, would have begun to experience a less rapid rate of decline around age 79, 6.3 years before diagnosis.
"While higher levels of education delay the onset of dementia, once it begins, the accelerated memory loss is more rapid in people with more education," said Dr. Hall. "Our study showed that a person with 16 years of formal education would experience a rate of memory decline that is 50% faster than someone with just 4 years education.
"This rapid decline may be explained by how people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve, or the brain's ability to maintain function in spite of damage," added Hall. "So, while they're often diagnosed with dementia at a later date -- which we believe may be because of their ability to hide the symptoms -- there's still damage to their brain."
Hall noted that this is the first study to confirm important predictions of the effects of cognitive reserve in people with preclinical dementia. He also said that the study is limited since the participants were born between 1894 and 1908 and their life experiences and education may not represent that of people entering the study age range today.
This research was published in the October 23rd issue of the medical journal Neurology. Other researchers from the Einstein Aging Study involved in the research included Carol Derby, PhD; Aaron LeValley; Mindy J. Katz; Joe Verghese, MD; and Richard B. Lipton, MD.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging.
Adapted from materials provided by Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
"While higher levels of education delay the onset of dementia, once it begins, the accelerated memory loss is more rapid in people with more education," said Dr. Hall
Huh? Oh, I get it. It seems being educated can help you stave off the effects of dementia for a while, but once you get it you really get it. Which just goes to show that no matter how slick you think you are, you can’t talk your way out of everything forever.
Does this have something to do with Season 4 of "Project Runway?"
Flamingos Killed in German Zoo Attack
AP reports that intruders decapitated three flamingos and strangled a fourth in a grisly attack at Frankfurt's zoo.
According to police, the birds were killed inside their enclosure by intruders who sneaked into the zoo between Monday night and Tuesday morning.
The zoo said three of the birds killed were more than 30 years old. The fourth was a Chilean flamingo, a species native to the South American country.
The zoo counts several flamingos among its menagerie of animals that includes rhinoceros, hippos lions, giraffes and scores of different birds, insects and reptiles.
That color pink isn't easy to come by.
More gambling in Casablanca? Shocking
Funding Source May Be Associated With Findings Regarding Adverse Effects In Corticosteroid Studies
ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2007) — Are Funding Sources Affecting Research Results? Studies of inhaled corticosteroids, medications frequently prescribed for asthma and other respiratory problems, appear less likely to find adverse effects if they are funded by pharmaceutical companies than if they are funded by other sources, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Inhaled corticosteroids are considered the cornerstone treatment for inflammatory respiratory diseases, especially asthma, even in mild or moderate cases," the authors write as background information in the article. "However, they are not free of adverse effects, and concerns have been raised about long-term treatment courses in milder cases of disease or in young children." Their use has been associated with potentially harmful decreases in the stress hormone cortisol, decreases in bone mineral density and growth suppression.
Antonio Nieto, M.D., Ph.D., of the Children's Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain, and colleagues assessed the safety reporting of inhaled corticosteroids in 504 studies of the drugs published between 1993 and 2002. Of those, 275 were funded by pharmaceutical companies and 229 were funded by other sources, including non-profit organizations and government agencies.
Overall, 34.5 percent of pharmaceutical-funded studies and 65.1 percent of studies with other funding sources found a significant difference in adverse effects between individuals assigned to inhaled corticosteroid groups and those who were not. This difference was no longer statistically significant when the researchers factored in components of the study design, such as dosage amounts or a focus limited to certain adverse effects, suggesting that the association between funding source and more positive outcomes may result from variations in study design.
"Remarkably, type of funding was a major determinant of the authors' interpretation of the adverse effects," the authors write. In studies that did find a significant association between corticosteroids and adverse effects, authors of manufacturer-funded studies were more likely to conclude the drugs were safe than authors of studies with no pharmaceutical funding.
Because the interpretations are subjective, it is difficult to determine if studies funded by the manufacturer are too positive or studies with no pharmaceutical funding are too cautious, the authors note. "However, we postulate that having information on source of funding will help readers of these studies have a better informed and balanced judgment on the authors' interpretations," they conclude. "Disclosure of conflicts of interest should be strengthened for a more balanced opinion on the safety of drugs."
Adapted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals
"Remarkably, type of funding was a major determinant of the authors' interpretation of the adverse effects,"
Remarkably? Clearly these guys were not familiar with “the Golden Rule.” He who has the gold, makes the rules.
Shirley McClaine says Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO. Can you say triple-word score in weirdness?
According to Openers/The Plain Dealer political blog, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO. So says Shirley MacLaine in her new book, "Sage-Ing While Age-Ing."
Kucinich, she writes on page143-144 of the book, "had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."
Representatives of Kucinich's presidential campaign and congressional office have not responded to calls and e-mail asking whether the Cleveland Democratic congressman in fact saw a UFO or if there is another explanation for MacLaine's recollection.
MacLaine is a well-known believer of UFOs and reincarnation. And she's been close to Kucinich for decades. MacLaine is the godmother of Kucinich's daughter and attended Kucinich's 2005 Cleveland wedding to third wife, Elizabeth, who's often campaigning by his side.
MacLaine also recommended in the 1980s that Kucinich visit New Mexico spiritual adviser Chris Griscom, whom MacLaine featured in her then-best-selling book, "Dancing in the Light," describing how Griscom helped her communicate with trees. (Kucinich has insisted that Griscom was not his spiritual adviser but a "teacher and a very good friend.")
MacLaine, who shares Kucinich's opposition to using weapons in space, doesn't shed any more light in her book on Kucinich's close encounter, including when it happened. But to read more about MacLaine's beliefs, pick up a copy of the book. It goes on sale next month -- on Election Day.
Boy, is that Shirley Maclaine helpful or what? One could argue that Maclaine’s revelation (endorsement?) could be the intergalactic nail in the coffin for Kucinich's candidacy. As if a candidate who hangs out with Willie Nelson hasn’t already seen his chances of getting elected go up in smoke.
Headline of the day
Soccer mom charged after attacking coach with lawn chair
(courtesy of the Obscure Store)
Newsday reports a soccer mom got more than a red card after she allegedly attacked a coach with a lawn chair Sunday, upset at the e-mailed directions to the game.
She got arrested.
Nassau County Police said Alicia Vigil, 33, of 168 Main Street, East Rockaway, was angered at the directions that the coach for the Lynbrook / East Rockaway Soccer Club had e-mailed to her for the Sunday game at Sewanhaka High School. So, following the game between the two club teams -- police did not identify the age of the girls on the team, but a Web site says the program is for girls between 4th grade and junior high school age -- Vigil confronted the coach and, police said, began a verbal altercation. When the coach started to walk away, police said Vigil swung a folding chair, striking the coach's face and cutting his lip and cheek. The coach was not identified.
Following an investigation, police arrested Vigil late Monday night at her home and charged her with second-degree reckless endangerment. She was released on an appearance ticket returnable Nov. 1 in First District Court in Hempstead.
Sounds like the perfect convergence of soccer momism and psychoactive pharmaceuticals with a little touch of "Don't you know who I am. I'm a suburban mother and my time is freakin' valuable" tossed in for good measure
It’s like this—if you’re not cute, people think you’re stupid.
Cavemen 'may have used language'
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent/ The Telegraph.co.uk
They are typically portrayed as primitive brutes capable only of grunting, but new research now suggests Neanderthals may have whiled away the hours in their caves in conversation.
Scientists who have been trawling through the DNA found in Neanderthal bones have discovered that the now extinct species had a “language gene” that is only found in modern humans.
Their controversial findings create the tantalising possibility that Neanderthals were in fact capable of speech much like humans and communicated with each other through their own language.
As language is seen as one of the key cornerstones that has set humans apart from other animals and allowed sophisticated cultures to develop, many anthropologists now believe it may have allowed Neanderthals to have their own culture.
It is a stark contrast to the traditional image of Neanderthals as simple-minded cavemen and the latest research has shed new light on how Neanderthals evolved from our common ancestor more than 400,000 years ago.
advertisement
Professor Svante Paabo, who has been leading the Neanderthal genome project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said the presence of the language gene would change the way people view Neanderthals.
He said: “It is not a compliment to be called a Neanderthal, but we are finding that the Neanderthal DNA looks much more like contemporary humans than chimps.
“The human variations of this gene involved in the use of language are not found in apes and for a long time there has been speculation Neanderthals would have a different gene and so a different linguistic ability.
“By looking at their DNA, we have found that from the point of view of this gene, there is no reason they would not have spoken like we do. It is a very contentious area with a lot of different views.”
His teams findings support previous work that has attempted to model the Neanderthals throat and larynx from their remains. While some scientists have insisted they would have spoken, others have dismissed the idea.
Until recently common scientific opinion has painted a picture of Neanderthals as a slow and dim-witted species that was outwitted by its smarter cousins who went on to become modern humans while the Neanderthals died out.
But there is now a growing consensus that Neanderthals were perhaps far more sophisticated than they have been given credit for capable of making stone tools and even cleaned their teeth.
The discovery of the gene, called FOXP2, have provided the strongest evidence yet that these heavily built species were capable of speech, although the researchers are unable to say what extent their linguistic ability would have been.
FOXP2 is thought to be crucial to the development of language as it governs the fine control of muscles that is needed to form words with the larynx, lips and tongue.
Professor Paabo has been leading research to create the first ever profile of the Neanderthal genome from the remains of nine Neanderthal’s, thought to have been killed and eaten by cannibals 42,000 years ago, that were found in a cave in Northern Spain.
The bones are carefully collected and frozen in the cave to avoid contamination before the DNA is extracted in the lab and profiled.
But some scientists have warned that it is not possible draw any conclusions about the Neanderthals ability to speak from the research, which is published in the journal Current Biology.
Dr Simon Fisher, one of the scientists at Oxford University who discovered FOXP2, said: “This is a really fascinating study, but analysis of a single gene is not enough to resolve the big question of whether or not Neanderthals were capable of speech or for us to estimate what level of complexity their vocal communication could achieve.”
Dr Simon Underdown, an anthropologist at Oxford Brookes University, insists, however, that the new research will revolutionise the way people look at Neanderthals.
He said: “This research should finally blow away the last vestiges of the Neanderthal as a dull-witted cave man.”
NEANDERTHAL FACTS
Lived 350,000 -24,000 years ago
Spread across Europe and as far east as southern Siberia and Uzbekistan
Last known refuge in caves in southern Iberia
Died off just 10,000 yeas after modern man arrived in Europe
Distinct species from modern humans although scientists debate if they interbred
Average male stood 5.4 feet tall while females were 5 feet tall but heavily built
Skulls had 10 per cent greater capacity than modern humans
Most Neanderthals died by the age of 30 years old
Named after Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany, where first key fossils were found
Early Neanderthals scavenged for food but later used may have used spears to hunt
While they don’t get credit for it, Neanderthals are actually responsible for that whole deconstructionist thing. Emo and shoe-gazing guitar solos too.
A 3,000-year-old mystery is finally solved: Tutankhamun died in a hunting accident
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 22 October 2007
The mystery behind the sudden death of Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, may have been finally solved by scientists who believe that he fell from a fast-moving chariot while out hunting in the desert.
Speculation surrounding Tutankhamun's death has been rife since his tomb was broken into in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter. X-rays of the mummy taken in 1968 indicated a swelling at the base of the skull, suggesting "King Tut" was killed by a blow to the head.
More recent studies using a CT medical scanner, however, revealed he suffered a badly broken leg, just above his knee just before he died. That in turn probably led to lethal blood poisoning. Now further evidence has come to light suggesting that he suffered the fracture while hunting game from a chariot.
The new findings are still circumstantial but one of Egypt's leading experts on Tutankhamun will say in a television documentary to be screened this week that he believes the case is now solved on how the boy king met his sudden and unexpected end.
"He was not murdered as many people thought. He had an accident when he was hunting in the desert. Falling from a chariot made this fracture in his left leg and this really is in my opinion how he died," said Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Until now, many historians had assumed that he was treated as a rather fragile child who was cosseted and protected from physical danger. However, Nadia Lokma of the Cairo Museum said that a recent analysis of the chariots found in the tombs of the pharaohs indicated that they were not merely ceremonial but show signs of wear and tear. Hundreds of arrows recovered from the tomb also show evidence of having been fired and recovered. "These chariots are hunting chariots, not war chariots. You can see from the wear on them that they were actually used in life," Dr Lokma said.
A cache of clothing found in Tutankhamun's tomb, which was stored in the vaults of the Cairo Museum, suggest that he was accustomed to riding these chariots himself. They include a specially-adapted corset which would have protected the wearer's abdominal organs from any damage from an accident or the heavy jostling of a chariot ride.
A final piece of evidence comes from a garland of flowers placed around the neck of Tutankhamun's mummy. Botanists found it included cornflowers and mayweed that were fresh at the time the decoration was made.
"The cornflower and mayweed on the garland around the mummy were in flower in March and April, which tells us the time of year he was buried," said Nigel Hepper of the Royal Horticultural Society at Kew Gardens.
Because the flowers could have been collected only between the middle of March and the end of April, and as the complex process of mummification lasted 70 days, this meant Tutankhamun probably died in December or January. That timing coincided with the middle of the winter hunting season.
The results of the latest research into Tutankhamun, which are to feature in a Channel Five documentary tomorrow evening, come just a few weeks before Britain hosts the first exhibition of his tomb's artefacts in 35 years at The O2 centre, formerly the Millennium Dome, in south-east London.
When the first Tutankhamun exhibition in London was held at the British Museum in 1972, some 1.5 million people made the pilgrimage to see his fabulous solid-gold facemask. This time, however, the mask will remain in Egypt because of fears it might not withstand the trip.
The present-day Lord Carnarvon, whose ancestor paid for Howard Carter's 1922 expedition, said the latest findings indicated that Tutankhamun was an active young man who took risks with his life.
"I thought he was an over-cosseted child, but I think he was really out there in the field and taking part in things towards the end of his short life," Lord Carnarvon said. "His chariots could have reached considerable speeds, up to 25mph. If a chariot turns over at that speed, you could easily break your leg very seriously."
That's a tragedy, but a lot of funny things can happen when you're hunting from a chariot, if you know what I mean.
We always knew that that book learnin’ was overrated
More Educated People Who Develop Dementia Lose Their Memory Faster
ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2007) — People with more years of education lose their memory faster than those with less education in the years prior to a diagnosis of dementia, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
The study included 117 people who developed dementia out of an original cohort of 488. The researchers, led by Charles B. Hall, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology and population health at Einstein, followed study participants for an average of six years using annual cognitive tests. Study participants ranged in formal education levels of less than three years of elementary school to individuals with postgraduate education.
The study found for each additional year of formal education, the rapid accelerated memory decline associated with oncoming dementia was delayed by approximately two and one half months. However, once that accelerated decline commenced, the people with more education saw their rate of cognitive decline accelerate 4 percent faster for each additional year of education. The latter portion of this finding corroborates previous research, which had shown that people with more education had more rapid memory loss after diagnosis of dementia.
For example, a college graduate with 16 years of education, whose dementia is diagnosed at age 85, would have begun to experience accelerated memory decline 3.8 years earlier, at age 81, while a person with just four years of education, who is diagnosed at the same age, would have begun to experience a less rapid rate of decline around age 79, 6.3 years before diagnosis.
"While higher levels of education delay the onset of dementia, once it begins, the accelerated memory loss is more rapid in people with more education," said Dr. Hall. "Our study showed that a person with 16 years of formal education would experience a rate of memory decline that is 50% faster than someone with just 4 years education.
"This rapid decline may be explained by how people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve, or the brain's ability to maintain function in spite of damage," added Hall. "So, while they're often diagnosed with dementia at a later date -- which we believe may be because of their ability to hide the symptoms -- there's still damage to their brain."
Hall noted that this is the first study to confirm important predictions of the effects of cognitive reserve in people with preclinical dementia. He also said that the study is limited since the participants were born between 1894 and 1908 and their life experiences and education may not represent that of people entering the study age range today.
This research was published in the October 23rd issue of the medical journal Neurology. Other researchers from the Einstein Aging Study involved in the research included Carol Derby, PhD; Aaron LeValley; Mindy J. Katz; Joe Verghese, MD; and Richard B. Lipton, MD.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging.
Adapted from materials provided by Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
"While higher levels of education delay the onset of dementia, once it begins, the accelerated memory loss is more rapid in people with more education," said Dr. Hall
Huh? Oh, I get it. It seems being educated can help you stave off the effects of dementia for a while, but once you get it you really get it. Which just goes to show that no matter how slick you think you are, you can’t talk your way out of everything forever.
Does this have something to do with Season 4 of "Project Runway?"
Flamingos Killed in German Zoo Attack
AP reports that intruders decapitated three flamingos and strangled a fourth in a grisly attack at Frankfurt's zoo.
According to police, the birds were killed inside their enclosure by intruders who sneaked into the zoo between Monday night and Tuesday morning.
The zoo said three of the birds killed were more than 30 years old. The fourth was a Chilean flamingo, a species native to the South American country.
The zoo counts several flamingos among its menagerie of animals that includes rhinoceros, hippos lions, giraffes and scores of different birds, insects and reptiles.
That color pink isn't easy to come by.
More gambling in Casablanca? Shocking
Funding Source May Be Associated With Findings Regarding Adverse Effects In Corticosteroid Studies
ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2007) — Are Funding Sources Affecting Research Results? Studies of inhaled corticosteroids, medications frequently prescribed for asthma and other respiratory problems, appear less likely to find adverse effects if they are funded by pharmaceutical companies than if they are funded by other sources, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Inhaled corticosteroids are considered the cornerstone treatment for inflammatory respiratory diseases, especially asthma, even in mild or moderate cases," the authors write as background information in the article. "However, they are not free of adverse effects, and concerns have been raised about long-term treatment courses in milder cases of disease or in young children." Their use has been associated with potentially harmful decreases in the stress hormone cortisol, decreases in bone mineral density and growth suppression.
Antonio Nieto, M.D., Ph.D., of the Children's Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain, and colleagues assessed the safety reporting of inhaled corticosteroids in 504 studies of the drugs published between 1993 and 2002. Of those, 275 were funded by pharmaceutical companies and 229 were funded by other sources, including non-profit organizations and government agencies.
Overall, 34.5 percent of pharmaceutical-funded studies and 65.1 percent of studies with other funding sources found a significant difference in adverse effects between individuals assigned to inhaled corticosteroid groups and those who were not. This difference was no longer statistically significant when the researchers factored in components of the study design, such as dosage amounts or a focus limited to certain adverse effects, suggesting that the association between funding source and more positive outcomes may result from variations in study design.
"Remarkably, type of funding was a major determinant of the authors' interpretation of the adverse effects," the authors write. In studies that did find a significant association between corticosteroids and adverse effects, authors of manufacturer-funded studies were more likely to conclude the drugs were safe than authors of studies with no pharmaceutical funding.
Because the interpretations are subjective, it is difficult to determine if studies funded by the manufacturer are too positive or studies with no pharmaceutical funding are too cautious, the authors note. "However, we postulate that having information on source of funding will help readers of these studies have a better informed and balanced judgment on the authors' interpretations," they conclude. "Disclosure of conflicts of interest should be strengthened for a more balanced opinion on the safety of drugs."
Adapted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals
"Remarkably, type of funding was a major determinant of the authors' interpretation of the adverse effects,"
Remarkably? Clearly these guys were not familiar with “the Golden Rule.” He who has the gold, makes the rules.
Shirley McClaine says Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO. Can you say triple-word score in weirdness?
According to Openers/The Plain Dealer political blog, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO. So says Shirley MacLaine in her new book, "Sage-Ing While Age-Ing."
Kucinich, she writes on page143-144 of the book, "had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."
Representatives of Kucinich's presidential campaign and congressional office have not responded to calls and e-mail asking whether the Cleveland Democratic congressman in fact saw a UFO or if there is another explanation for MacLaine's recollection.
MacLaine is a well-known believer of UFOs and reincarnation. And she's been close to Kucinich for decades. MacLaine is the godmother of Kucinich's daughter and attended Kucinich's 2005 Cleveland wedding to third wife, Elizabeth, who's often campaigning by his side.
MacLaine also recommended in the 1980s that Kucinich visit New Mexico spiritual adviser Chris Griscom, whom MacLaine featured in her then-best-selling book, "Dancing in the Light," describing how Griscom helped her communicate with trees. (Kucinich has insisted that Griscom was not his spiritual adviser but a "teacher and a very good friend.")
MacLaine, who shares Kucinich's opposition to using weapons in space, doesn't shed any more light in her book on Kucinich's close encounter, including when it happened. But to read more about MacLaine's beliefs, pick up a copy of the book. It goes on sale next month -- on Election Day.
Boy, is that Shirley Maclaine helpful or what? One could argue that Maclaine’s revelation (endorsement?) could be the intergalactic nail in the coffin for Kucinich's candidacy. As if a candidate who hangs out with Willie Nelson hasn’t already seen his chances of getting elected go up in smoke.
Headline of the day
Soccer mom charged after attacking coach with lawn chair
(courtesy of the Obscure Store)
Newsday reports a soccer mom got more than a red card after she allegedly attacked a coach with a lawn chair Sunday, upset at the e-mailed directions to the game.
She got arrested.
Nassau County Police said Alicia Vigil, 33, of 168 Main Street, East Rockaway, was angered at the directions that the coach for the Lynbrook / East Rockaway Soccer Club had e-mailed to her for the Sunday game at Sewanhaka High School. So, following the game between the two club teams -- police did not identify the age of the girls on the team, but a Web site says the program is for girls between 4th grade and junior high school age -- Vigil confronted the coach and, police said, began a verbal altercation. When the coach started to walk away, police said Vigil swung a folding chair, striking the coach's face and cutting his lip and cheek. The coach was not identified.
Following an investigation, police arrested Vigil late Monday night at her home and charged her with second-degree reckless endangerment. She was released on an appearance ticket returnable Nov. 1 in First District Court in Hempstead.
Sounds like the perfect convergence of soccer momism and psychoactive pharmaceuticals with a little touch of "Don't you know who I am. I'm a suburban mother and my time is freakin' valuable" tossed in for good measure
It’s like this—if you’re not cute, people think you’re stupid.
Cavemen 'may have used language'
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent/ The Telegraph.co.uk
They are typically portrayed as primitive brutes capable only of grunting, but new research now suggests Neanderthals may have whiled away the hours in their caves in conversation.
Scientists who have been trawling through the DNA found in Neanderthal bones have discovered that the now extinct species had a “language gene” that is only found in modern humans.
Their controversial findings create the tantalising possibility that Neanderthals were in fact capable of speech much like humans and communicated with each other through their own language.
As language is seen as one of the key cornerstones that has set humans apart from other animals and allowed sophisticated cultures to develop, many anthropologists now believe it may have allowed Neanderthals to have their own culture.
It is a stark contrast to the traditional image of Neanderthals as simple-minded cavemen and the latest research has shed new light on how Neanderthals evolved from our common ancestor more than 400,000 years ago.
advertisement
Professor Svante Paabo, who has been leading the Neanderthal genome project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said the presence of the language gene would change the way people view Neanderthals.
He said: “It is not a compliment to be called a Neanderthal, but we are finding that the Neanderthal DNA looks much more like contemporary humans than chimps.
“The human variations of this gene involved in the use of language are not found in apes and for a long time there has been speculation Neanderthals would have a different gene and so a different linguistic ability.
“By looking at their DNA, we have found that from the point of view of this gene, there is no reason they would not have spoken like we do. It is a very contentious area with a lot of different views.”
His teams findings support previous work that has attempted to model the Neanderthals throat and larynx from their remains. While some scientists have insisted they would have spoken, others have dismissed the idea.
Until recently common scientific opinion has painted a picture of Neanderthals as a slow and dim-witted species that was outwitted by its smarter cousins who went on to become modern humans while the Neanderthals died out.
But there is now a growing consensus that Neanderthals were perhaps far more sophisticated than they have been given credit for capable of making stone tools and even cleaned their teeth.
The discovery of the gene, called FOXP2, have provided the strongest evidence yet that these heavily built species were capable of speech, although the researchers are unable to say what extent their linguistic ability would have been.
FOXP2 is thought to be crucial to the development of language as it governs the fine control of muscles that is needed to form words with the larynx, lips and tongue.
Professor Paabo has been leading research to create the first ever profile of the Neanderthal genome from the remains of nine Neanderthal’s, thought to have been killed and eaten by cannibals 42,000 years ago, that were found in a cave in Northern Spain.
The bones are carefully collected and frozen in the cave to avoid contamination before the DNA is extracted in the lab and profiled.
But some scientists have warned that it is not possible draw any conclusions about the Neanderthals ability to speak from the research, which is published in the journal Current Biology.
Dr Simon Fisher, one of the scientists at Oxford University who discovered FOXP2, said: “This is a really fascinating study, but analysis of a single gene is not enough to resolve the big question of whether or not Neanderthals were capable of speech or for us to estimate what level of complexity their vocal communication could achieve.”
Dr Simon Underdown, an anthropologist at Oxford Brookes University, insists, however, that the new research will revolutionise the way people look at Neanderthals.
He said: “This research should finally blow away the last vestiges of the Neanderthal as a dull-witted cave man.”
NEANDERTHAL FACTS
Lived 350,000 -24,000 years ago
Spread across Europe and as far east as southern Siberia and Uzbekistan
Last known refuge in caves in southern Iberia
Died off just 10,000 yeas after modern man arrived in Europe
Distinct species from modern humans although scientists debate if they interbred
Average male stood 5.4 feet tall while females were 5 feet tall but heavily built
Skulls had 10 per cent greater capacity than modern humans
Most Neanderthals died by the age of 30 years old
Named after Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany, where first key fossils were found
Early Neanderthals scavenged for food but later used may have used spears to hunt
While they don’t get credit for it, Neanderthals are actually responsible for that whole deconstructionist thing. Emo and shoe-gazing guitar solos too.
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