Headlines of the day
Automated killer robots 'threat to humanity': expert
(AFP)
Study Shows Bacteria Are Common in Snow (AP)
Report: 1 in every 100 adults behind bars (CNN)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 02/27/08
Headlines of the day
Snake eats family dog as kids watch (CNN)
Eskimo village sues over global warming (CNN)
William F. Buckley, Crypto-Fascist, Is Correcting Usage In Heaven (Gawker)
It’s right next to the porch light region and just above the “wait ‘till your father gets home” lobe.
Why Do We Love Babies? Parental Instinct Region Found In The Brain
ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2008) — Why do we almost instinctively treat babies as special, protecting them and enabling them to survive? Darwin originally pointed out that there is something about infants which prompts adults to respond to and care for them which allows our species to survive. Nobel-Prize-winning zoologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that it is the specific structure of the infant face, including a relatively large head and forehead, large and low lying eyes and bulging cheek region, that serves to elicit these parental responses. But the biological basis for this has remained elusive.
Now, a possible brain basis for this parental instinct has been reported. This research was led by Morten Kringelbach and Alan Stein from the University of Oxford and was funded by the Wellcome Trust and TrygFonden Charitable Foundation. The authors showed that a region of the human brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex is highly specifically active within a seventh of a second in response to (unfamiliar) infant faces but not to adult faces.
This finding has potentially important clinical application in relation to postnatal depression, which is common, occurring in approximately 13% of mothers after birth and often within six weeks. The present findings could eventually provide opportunities for early identification of families at risk.
The research team used a neuroimaging method called magnetoencephalography (MEG) at Aston University, UK. This is an advanced neuroscientific tool which offers both excellent temporal (in milliseconds) and spatial (in millimetres) resolution of whole brain activity. Because the researchers were primarily interested in the highly automatized processing of faces, they used an implicit task that required participants to monitor the colour of a small red cross and to press a button as soon as the colour changed. This was interspersed by adult and infant faces that were shown for 300 ms, but which were not important to solve the task.
The authors found a key difference in the early brain activity of normal adults when they viewed infant faces compared to adult faces. In addition to the well documented brain activity in the visual areas of the brain in response to faces, early activity was found in the medial orbitofrontal cortex to infant faces but not adult faces. This wave of activity starts around a seventh of a second after presentation of an infant face. These responses are almost certainly too fast to be consciously controlled and are therefore perhaps instinctive.
The medial orbitofrontal cortex is located in the front of the brain, just over the eyeballs. It is a key region of the emotional brain and appears to be related to the ongoing monitoring of salient reward-related stimuli in the environment. In the context of the experiment, the medial orbitofrontal cortex may provide the necessary emotional tagging of infant faces that predisposes us to treat infant faces as special and plays a key role in establishing a parental bond.
Snake eats family dog as kids watch (CNN)
Eskimo village sues over global warming (CNN)
William F. Buckley, Crypto-Fascist, Is Correcting Usage In Heaven (Gawker)
It’s right next to the porch light region and just above the “wait ‘till your father gets home” lobe.
Why Do We Love Babies? Parental Instinct Region Found In The Brain
ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2008) — Why do we almost instinctively treat babies as special, protecting them and enabling them to survive? Darwin originally pointed out that there is something about infants which prompts adults to respond to and care for them which allows our species to survive. Nobel-Prize-winning zoologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that it is the specific structure of the infant face, including a relatively large head and forehead, large and low lying eyes and bulging cheek region, that serves to elicit these parental responses. But the biological basis for this has remained elusive.
Now, a possible brain basis for this parental instinct has been reported. This research was led by Morten Kringelbach and Alan Stein from the University of Oxford and was funded by the Wellcome Trust and TrygFonden Charitable Foundation. The authors showed that a region of the human brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex is highly specifically active within a seventh of a second in response to (unfamiliar) infant faces but not to adult faces.
This finding has potentially important clinical application in relation to postnatal depression, which is common, occurring in approximately 13% of mothers after birth and often within six weeks. The present findings could eventually provide opportunities for early identification of families at risk.
The research team used a neuroimaging method called magnetoencephalography (MEG) at Aston University, UK. This is an advanced neuroscientific tool which offers both excellent temporal (in milliseconds) and spatial (in millimetres) resolution of whole brain activity. Because the researchers were primarily interested in the highly automatized processing of faces, they used an implicit task that required participants to monitor the colour of a small red cross and to press a button as soon as the colour changed. This was interspersed by adult and infant faces that were shown for 300 ms, but which were not important to solve the task.
The authors found a key difference in the early brain activity of normal adults when they viewed infant faces compared to adult faces. In addition to the well documented brain activity in the visual areas of the brain in response to faces, early activity was found in the medial orbitofrontal cortex to infant faces but not adult faces. This wave of activity starts around a seventh of a second after presentation of an infant face. These responses are almost certainly too fast to be consciously controlled and are therefore perhaps instinctive.
The medial orbitofrontal cortex is located in the front of the brain, just over the eyeballs. It is a key region of the emotional brain and appears to be related to the ongoing monitoring of salient reward-related stimuli in the environment. In the context of the experiment, the medial orbitofrontal cortex may provide the necessary emotional tagging of infant faces that predisposes us to treat infant faces as special and plays a key role in establishing a parental bond.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 02/26/08
Headline of the day
Falling icicles kill six in Russia...(Drudge)
Hard water…
Once again, British researchers demonstrate they have a tough time distinguishing between fact and opinion
Materialistic society is 'damaging' children: poll
(Breitbart) Children feel under pressure to own the latest designer clothes and computer games and most adults believe the "commercialisation of childhood" is damaging young people's well-being, a poll said Tuesday.
A survey by GfK NOP for the Children's Society showed that out of the 1,225 adults questioned, 89 percent felt that children are more materialistic now than in previous generations.
Evidence submitted to the inquiry from children themselves suggests that they do feel under pressure to keep up with the latest trends, the society added.
The poll is part of a larger inquiry into childhood and includes evidence by professionals and members of the public on issues such as lifestyle, learning, friends and family.
Professor of child psychology Philip Graham -- who is leading the inquirys lifestyle theme -- believes that commercial pressures may have "worrying psychological effects" on children.
"One factor that may be leading to rising mental health problems is the increasing degree to which children and young people are preoccupied with possessions; the latest in fashionable clothes and electronic equipment.
"Evidence both from the United States and from the UK suggests that those most influenced by commercial pressures also show higher rates of mental health problems," he said.
Commenting on the results of the poll, chief executive of the Childrens Society Bob Reitemeier said: "As adults we have to take responsibility for the current level of marketing to children. To accuse children of being materialistic in such a culture is a cop out.
"Unless we question our own behaviour as a society we risk creating a generation who are left unfulfilled through chasing unattainable lifestyles."
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and patron of the inquiry, added: "Children should be encouraged to value themselves for who they are as people rather than what they own.
"The selling of lifestyles to children creates a culture of material competitiveness and promotes acquisitive individualism at the expense of the principles of community and cooperation."
Other results in the poll showed that just over 60 percent wants the government to ban junk food adverts and nearly 7 in ten agreed that violent video games make children more aggressive.
The final report and recommendations of the Good Childhood Inquiry will be published in early 2009
Breaking news: Cool kids often ridicule those who are less attractive. Years later, geeks use this to justify their trip to the bell tower with an AK. Film at 11.
Acne May Prevent People From Participating In Sport And Exercise, Says Research
ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2008) — Acne patients who are highly anxious about their skin condition say they are less likely to participate in sport or exercise, according to new research at the
The study, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, involved 50 young to middle-aged adults recruited from a national acne support group.
As well as saying that they were less likely to participate in sport or exercise, acne sufferers who perceived their skin to be negatively evaluated by others also experienced lower self-esteem and a poorer quality of life. This pattern was similar in both men and women.
The researchers say that ‘dermatological social anxiety’ is often overlooked in studies on motivation for sport and exercise in favour of physical inhibitions.
“The skin is the most visible organ in the human body and, as such, is an important part of personal image,” said Dr Martyn Standage, a lecturer in the School for Health at the University of Bath.
“Fear of having one’s skin evaluated by others has implications for physical and social wellbeing.
“Sport and exercise activities provide many opportunities for the skin to be exposed to evaluation. Due to this, acne sufferers may become so anxious about their appearance that it prevents them from participating in physical activity.”
Want cookie, must have cookie, will have cookie, give cookie
Children Show Goal-oriented Behavior By Age Three
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008) — Hang on, parents. After the terrible twos come the goal-oriented threes. Kids seem to grow into the ability to act in pursuit of goals outside of what they can immediately sense sometime around that age, according to a new study. Researchers found that by around age 3, children appear to shape their behavior in response to the outcomes they've come to expect. Anticipated outcomes that they value move them to act more than do outcomes that they don't -- a hallmark of emerging autonomy.
At the University of Cambridge, a trio of psychologists trained 72 children between 18 months and 4 years old, divided into three 10-month age bands (averaging 1.3 to 2.2 years, 2.3 to 3.075 years, and 3.08 to 4 years) to touch a red or green butterfly icon on a touch-screen display to see different cartoon video clips. The children came to associate one butterfly with one cartoon sequence and the other butterfly with another.
After that, the experimenters devalued one of the outcomes by showing that sequence repeatedly, until the children became bored with it. Thus, the less-viewed cartoon clips became, by contrast, more interesting and valuable. The researchers then re-tested the children, who should now have associated one butterfly with a valued cartoon and the other butterfly with a less-valued cartoon.
Relative to the younger children, those who were 32 months (nearly 3 years) and older touched the butterfly for the less-valued cartoon significantly less often than they touched the butterfly for the more novel cartoon. During that test, the cartoons were not actually presented; the children had to rely on their memories of which butterfly icon produced which cartoon. This test thus showed that the actions of the older children behavior depended on the current values of the
Falling icicles kill six in Russia...(Drudge)
Hard water…
Once again, British researchers demonstrate they have a tough time distinguishing between fact and opinion
Materialistic society is 'damaging' children: poll
(Breitbart) Children feel under pressure to own the latest designer clothes and computer games and most adults believe the "commercialisation of childhood" is damaging young people's well-being, a poll said Tuesday.
A survey by GfK NOP for the Children's Society showed that out of the 1,225 adults questioned, 89 percent felt that children are more materialistic now than in previous generations.
Evidence submitted to the inquiry from children themselves suggests that they do feel under pressure to keep up with the latest trends, the society added.
The poll is part of a larger inquiry into childhood and includes evidence by professionals and members of the public on issues such as lifestyle, learning, friends and family.
Professor of child psychology Philip Graham -- who is leading the inquirys lifestyle theme -- believes that commercial pressures may have "worrying psychological effects" on children.
"One factor that may be leading to rising mental health problems is the increasing degree to which children and young people are preoccupied with possessions; the latest in fashionable clothes and electronic equipment.
"Evidence both from the United States and from the UK suggests that those most influenced by commercial pressures also show higher rates of mental health problems," he said.
Commenting on the results of the poll, chief executive of the Childrens Society Bob Reitemeier said: "As adults we have to take responsibility for the current level of marketing to children. To accuse children of being materialistic in such a culture is a cop out.
"Unless we question our own behaviour as a society we risk creating a generation who are left unfulfilled through chasing unattainable lifestyles."
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and patron of the inquiry, added: "Children should be encouraged to value themselves for who they are as people rather than what they own.
"The selling of lifestyles to children creates a culture of material competitiveness and promotes acquisitive individualism at the expense of the principles of community and cooperation."
Other results in the poll showed that just over 60 percent wants the government to ban junk food adverts and nearly 7 in ten agreed that violent video games make children more aggressive.
The final report and recommendations of the Good Childhood Inquiry will be published in early 2009
Breaking news: Cool kids often ridicule those who are less attractive. Years later, geeks use this to justify their trip to the bell tower with an AK. Film at 11.
Acne May Prevent People From Participating In Sport And Exercise, Says Research
ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2008) — Acne patients who are highly anxious about their skin condition say they are less likely to participate in sport or exercise, according to new research at the
The study, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, involved 50 young to middle-aged adults recruited from a national acne support group.
As well as saying that they were less likely to participate in sport or exercise, acne sufferers who perceived their skin to be negatively evaluated by others also experienced lower self-esteem and a poorer quality of life. This pattern was similar in both men and women.
The researchers say that ‘dermatological social anxiety’ is often overlooked in studies on motivation for sport and exercise in favour of physical inhibitions.
“The skin is the most visible organ in the human body and, as such, is an important part of personal image,” said Dr Martyn Standage, a lecturer in the School for Health at the University of Bath.
“Fear of having one’s skin evaluated by others has implications for physical and social wellbeing.
“Sport and exercise activities provide many opportunities for the skin to be exposed to evaluation. Due to this, acne sufferers may become so anxious about their appearance that it prevents them from participating in physical activity.”
Want cookie, must have cookie, will have cookie, give cookie
Children Show Goal-oriented Behavior By Age Three
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008) — Hang on, parents. After the terrible twos come the goal-oriented threes. Kids seem to grow into the ability to act in pursuit of goals outside of what they can immediately sense sometime around that age, according to a new study. Researchers found that by around age 3, children appear to shape their behavior in response to the outcomes they've come to expect. Anticipated outcomes that they value move them to act more than do outcomes that they don't -- a hallmark of emerging autonomy.
At the University of Cambridge, a trio of psychologists trained 72 children between 18 months and 4 years old, divided into three 10-month age bands (averaging 1.3 to 2.2 years, 2.3 to 3.075 years, and 3.08 to 4 years) to touch a red or green butterfly icon on a touch-screen display to see different cartoon video clips. The children came to associate one butterfly with one cartoon sequence and the other butterfly with another.
After that, the experimenters devalued one of the outcomes by showing that sequence repeatedly, until the children became bored with it. Thus, the less-viewed cartoon clips became, by contrast, more interesting and valuable. The researchers then re-tested the children, who should now have associated one butterfly with a valued cartoon and the other butterfly with a less-valued cartoon.
Relative to the younger children, those who were 32 months (nearly 3 years) and older touched the butterfly for the less-valued cartoon significantly less often than they touched the butterfly for the more novel cartoon. During that test, the cartoons were not actually presented; the children had to rely on their memories of which butterfly icon produced which cartoon. This test thus showed that the actions of the older children behavior depended on the current values of the
Monday, February 25, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 02/25/08
Headlines of the day
Cannibalistic iguana chokes on toy lizard (CNN)
Suicidal pets get anti-depressants (News.com.au)
So how come there are no notes?
40-year-old son accused of Tasering mom at late night party (Sun-Sentinal.com)
Lawyers gird for inevitable conflict
Python Snakes, An Invasive Species In Florida, Could Spread To One Third Of US
ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2008) — Burmese pythons—an invasive species in south Florida—could find comfortable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States according to new "climate maps" developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although other factors such as type of food available and suitable shelter also play a role, Burmese pythons and other giant constrictor snakes have shown themselves to be highly adaptable to new environments.
The just-released USGS maps can help natural resource agencies manage and possibly control the spread of non-native giant constrictor snakes, such as the Burmese python, now spreading from Everglades National Park in Florida. These "climate match" maps show where climate in the U.S. is similar to places in which Burmese pythons live naturally (from Pakistan to Indonesia).
A look at the map shows why biologists are concerned.
The maps show where climate alone would not limit these snakes. One map shows areas in the U.S. with current climatic conditions similar to those of the snakes' native ranges. A second map projects these "climate matches" at the end of this century based on global warming models, which significantly expands the potential habitat for these snakes.
Biologists with Everglades National Park confirmed a breeding population of Burmese python in the Florida Everglades in 2003, presumably the result of released pets. Python populations have since been discovered in Big Cypress National Preserve to the north, Miami's water management areas to the northeast, Key Largo to the southeast, and many state parks, municipalities, and public and private lands in the region.
Hopefully, someone is developing the "tissues of death"
Bacteria Use 'Invisibility Cloak' To Hide From Human Immune System
ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2008) — Scientists at the University of York have characterised an important new step in the mechanism used by bacteria to evade our immune system.
It is an ‘invisibility cloak’ which means that bacteria like Haemophilus influenzae, a common cause of ear infections in children, can move about the body without the risk of being attacked by the immune system.
A multidisciplinary research team from the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at York have been studying how bacteria capture the molecule used to make the ‘cloak’, called sialic acid.
The researchers have now discovered an enzymatic activity that helps in the more efficient capture of sialic acids released from our cell surfaces. As well as using the sialic acid to make the ‘invisibility cloak’ other bacteria use similar methods to capture sialic acid as a simple food source, so are literally eating us from the inside!
Ok, so what aren’t they telling us—and do they have brussels sprouts?
Doomsday' seed vault to open in Norway
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (CNN) -- A vast underground vault storing millions of seeds from around the world is scheduled to open this week in a mountain on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean.
art.seeds.norway.ap.jpg
The inside of one of the vaults at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which will hold 4.5m different seed types.
Dubbed the "Doomsday Vault," the seed bank is considered the ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections, protecting them from a wide range of threats including war, natural disasters, lack of funding or simply poor agricultural management.
The Norwegian government paid to build the vault in a mountainside near Longyearbyen, in the remote Svalbard islands between Norway and the North Pole. Building began last year, and the vault is scheduled to open officially Tuesday.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, as it is officially known, can hold as many as 4.5 million seed samples and will eventually house almost every variety of most important food crops in the world, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is paying to collect and maintain the seeds.
The United Nations founded the trust in 2004 to support the long-term conservation of crop diversity, and countries and foundations provide the funding.
"The seed vault is the perfect place for keeping seeds safe for centuries," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the trust. "At these temperatures, seeds for important crops like wheat, barley and peas can last for up to 10,000 years."
The vault's location deep inside a mountain in the frozen north ensures the seeds can be stored safely no matter what happens outside.
"We believe the design of the facility will ensure that the seeds will stay well-preserved even if such forces as global warming raise temperatures outside the facility," said Magnus Bredeli Tveiten, project manager for the Norwegian government.
Don't Miss
The vault sits at the end of a 120-meter (131-yard) tunnel blasted inside the mountain. Workers used a refrigeration system to bring the vault to -18 degrees Celsius (just below 0 degrees Fahrenheit), and a smaller refrigeration system plus the area's natural permafrost and the mountain's thick rock will keep the vault at least -4 C (25 F).
The vault at Svalbard is similar to an existing seed bank in Sussex, England, about an hour outside London. The British vault, called the Millennium Seed Bank, is part of an scientific project that works with wild plants, as opposed to the seeds of crops.
Paul Smith, the leader of the Millennium Seed Bank project, said preserving the seeds of wild plants is just as important as preserving the seeds of vital crops.
"We must give ourselves every option in the future to use the whole array of plant diversity that is available to us," Smith told CNN.
The idea for the Arctic seed bank dates to the 1980s but only became a possibility after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources came into force in 2004, the Norwegian government said. The treaty provided an international framework for conserving and accessing crop diversity.
advertisement
Svalbard is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections around the world.
The Norwegian government says it has paid 50 million Norwegian Kroner ($9.4 million) to build the seed vault.
Cannibalistic iguana chokes on toy lizard (CNN)
Suicidal pets get anti-depressants (News.com.au)
So how come there are no notes?
40-year-old son accused of Tasering mom at late night party (Sun-Sentinal.com)
Lawyers gird for inevitable conflict
Python Snakes, An Invasive Species In Florida, Could Spread To One Third Of US
ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2008) — Burmese pythons—an invasive species in south Florida—could find comfortable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States according to new "climate maps" developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although other factors such as type of food available and suitable shelter also play a role, Burmese pythons and other giant constrictor snakes have shown themselves to be highly adaptable to new environments.
The just-released USGS maps can help natural resource agencies manage and possibly control the spread of non-native giant constrictor snakes, such as the Burmese python, now spreading from Everglades National Park in Florida. These "climate match" maps show where climate in the U.S. is similar to places in which Burmese pythons live naturally (from Pakistan to Indonesia).
A look at the map shows why biologists are concerned.
The maps show where climate alone would not limit these snakes. One map shows areas in the U.S. with current climatic conditions similar to those of the snakes' native ranges. A second map projects these "climate matches" at the end of this century based on global warming models, which significantly expands the potential habitat for these snakes.
Biologists with Everglades National Park confirmed a breeding population of Burmese python in the Florida Everglades in 2003, presumably the result of released pets. Python populations have since been discovered in Big Cypress National Preserve to the north, Miami's water management areas to the northeast, Key Largo to the southeast, and many state parks, municipalities, and public and private lands in the region.
Hopefully, someone is developing the "tissues of death"
Bacteria Use 'Invisibility Cloak' To Hide From Human Immune System
ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2008) — Scientists at the University of York have characterised an important new step in the mechanism used by bacteria to evade our immune system.
It is an ‘invisibility cloak’ which means that bacteria like Haemophilus influenzae, a common cause of ear infections in children, can move about the body without the risk of being attacked by the immune system.
A multidisciplinary research team from the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at York have been studying how bacteria capture the molecule used to make the ‘cloak’, called sialic acid.
The researchers have now discovered an enzymatic activity that helps in the more efficient capture of sialic acids released from our cell surfaces. As well as using the sialic acid to make the ‘invisibility cloak’ other bacteria use similar methods to capture sialic acid as a simple food source, so are literally eating us from the inside!
Ok, so what aren’t they telling us—and do they have brussels sprouts?
Doomsday' seed vault to open in Norway
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (CNN) -- A vast underground vault storing millions of seeds from around the world is scheduled to open this week in a mountain on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean.
art.seeds.norway.ap.jpg
The inside of one of the vaults at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which will hold 4.5m different seed types.
Dubbed the "Doomsday Vault," the seed bank is considered the ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections, protecting them from a wide range of threats including war, natural disasters, lack of funding or simply poor agricultural management.
The Norwegian government paid to build the vault in a mountainside near Longyearbyen, in the remote Svalbard islands between Norway and the North Pole. Building began last year, and the vault is scheduled to open officially Tuesday.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, as it is officially known, can hold as many as 4.5 million seed samples and will eventually house almost every variety of most important food crops in the world, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is paying to collect and maintain the seeds.
The United Nations founded the trust in 2004 to support the long-term conservation of crop diversity, and countries and foundations provide the funding.
"The seed vault is the perfect place for keeping seeds safe for centuries," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the trust. "At these temperatures, seeds for important crops like wheat, barley and peas can last for up to 10,000 years."
The vault's location deep inside a mountain in the frozen north ensures the seeds can be stored safely no matter what happens outside.
"We believe the design of the facility will ensure that the seeds will stay well-preserved even if such forces as global warming raise temperatures outside the facility," said Magnus Bredeli Tveiten, project manager for the Norwegian government.
Don't Miss
The vault sits at the end of a 120-meter (131-yard) tunnel blasted inside the mountain. Workers used a refrigeration system to bring the vault to -18 degrees Celsius (just below 0 degrees Fahrenheit), and a smaller refrigeration system plus the area's natural permafrost and the mountain's thick rock will keep the vault at least -4 C (25 F).
The vault at Svalbard is similar to an existing seed bank in Sussex, England, about an hour outside London. The British vault, called the Millennium Seed Bank, is part of an scientific project that works with wild plants, as opposed to the seeds of crops.
Paul Smith, the leader of the Millennium Seed Bank project, said preserving the seeds of wild plants is just as important as preserving the seeds of vital crops.
"We must give ourselves every option in the future to use the whole array of plant diversity that is available to us," Smith told CNN.
The idea for the Arctic seed bank dates to the 1980s but only became a possibility after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources came into force in 2004, the Norwegian government said. The treaty provided an international framework for conserving and accessing crop diversity.
advertisement
Svalbard is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections around the world.
The Norwegian government says it has paid 50 million Norwegian Kroner ($9.4 million) to build the seed vault.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 02/15/08
Headline of the day
Police: Man calls 911 27,000 times (CNN)
Well, it seemed like an emergency to him.
Police: Man calls 911 27,000 times (CNN)
Well, it seemed like an emergency to him.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 02/14/08
Headlines of the day
DUI hearing postponed; defendant was drunk (Seattle Times)
Finding love getting easier in rural areas (CNN)
Don’t feel sheepish.
DUI hearing postponed; defendant was drunk (Seattle Times)
Finding love getting easier in rural areas (CNN)
Don’t feel sheepish.
What gave it away? Was it the golden arches? Astronomers See Signs of Other Solar Systems Like Ours (KYW Newsradio) |
| Scientists have discovered smaller versions of Jupiter and Saturn in a distant solar system. This suggests that there may be a lot of solar systems out there similar to ours. And this brings us one step closer to answering the question, "Is there another planet like Earth in our galaxy?" A team of astronomers has discovered two planets about 80 percent of the size of our Jupiter and Saturn in a solar system 5,000 light years away. Astronomer Scott Gaudi at Ohio State University, using a new technique called gravitational microlensing, says the fact that two planets were discovered right off the bat indicates that our galaxy may host many planetary systems like ours: "It was still this completely open question: how common are solar systems like our own? Our results show that indeed there are other solar systems out there like our own -- and they might well be common."
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 02/13/08
Headlines of the day
Woman, 89, uses ax to smash door glass after being locked out (The Obscure Store)
"Marketers salivate over lickable ads" (WSJ)
We have a great deal of respect for all the great metaphysical traditions, economics in particular. The Nobel people think these guys are doing dynamite work.
Why Youth Hostel Showers Are Like The Stock Market: Variety Provides Stabililty
ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2008) — Diversity keeps you warm. At least that is true while you're having a shower in youth hostels. If you like, this sums up the research project just published by scientists from the Universities of Fribourg and Bonn. Their result is not as trivial as it sounds. Ultimately it shows that heterogeneity provides stability, whether this is in a shower, in power grids or even on the stock market.
Having a shower in a youth hostel can be risky when there is not enough hot water for everybody. If only one visitor turns up the hot tap during the early morning shower, everyone else is threatened by an icy gush of water. This unwanted form of hydrotherapy is particularly likely to happen when all the shower taps have the same possible settings, in other words if cold and hot water can be adjusted to exactly the same amount in all showers. But if the water taps in each shower have their individual quirks, the risk of extreme fluctuations is less.
At least that is what the Bonn economist Christina Matzke and her colleague Damien Challet, a physicist at the University of Fribourg, say. They modelled the temperature profile of showers in a youth hostel on the computer. 'All in all, heterogeneous taps offer advantages -- they prevent the average shower temperature of all guests from suddenly dropping or rising,' Christina Matzke explains. 'From the perspective of the individual they also have disadvantages, as it's more difficult for each person to set the right temperature.'
The problem sounds comical, but in principle it can be applied to all situations where people compete for a scarce resource, whether this is hot water, electricity or equities. One thing is always true, the more individualistic the behaviour of those involved in the market is, the more stable the whole system becomes. Put simply, the only reason why our electricity grid does not break down is that not all the inhabitants of Germany switch on the tumble drier at the same time. And if all shareholders made strictly rational decisions on their investments, there would probably be a lot more turbulence on the stock market.
The result is also significant from a theoretical point of view. 'We show what different results economic models can produce, depending on whether they are based on homogeneous or heterogeneous behaviour,' Christina Matzke emphasises. Accordingly, it is important to account for differences in individual behaviour when making forecasts. Although it sounds obvious, economists long ignored this insight. For decades their models were dominated by 'homo economicus', an imaginary standardised market investor who always made rational decisions rather than deciding according to individual criteria.
From this thing that look like a rummage sale ashtray we can deduce that this creature was 25 feet long. At least it was in the afternoon.
A Baby Dinosaur, 72 Million Years Old
By NED POTTER/ABC News
The Mexican state of Coahuila, due west of the southern tip of Texas, is arid country today. But 72 million years ago it was a tropical paradise, warm and moist, close to a vast sea that divided what eventually became North America.
Now, scientists report they have found a new dinosaur species there -- one of the very few ever discovered in Mexico.
It was apparently a duck-billed plant eater, probably about 25 feet long. Scientists hesitate to guess too much about it, but they say they can tell from its bone structure that it was probably not fully grown. An adult of the species could have been 10 feet longer.
"Close your eyes," said Terry Gates, a paleontologist at the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. "I want you to imagine yourself on a beach in Puerto Vallarta. Nice day, with the sun and the ocean -- and then, when you open your eyes, you're suddenly looking at this thing."
Gates was on the team, from Mexico, Canada and the United States, that dug up the fossil and reconstructed it. The work took more than 10 years, partly because the skull was shattered -- and buried under 12 feet of rock and dirt. They called the new species Velafrons coahuilensis.
It is different from almost any other duck-billed dinosaur ever found. The reassembled skull has a large hollow bulge on top, through which it probably breathed.
"The really cool thing about these duck-billed dinosaurs is that their nasal passages probably allowed them to make some kind of music," said Gates. "We don't know exactly what kinds of sounds they would make, but it is likely to be somewhat like what trumpeters make."
Gates said it is likely that such an ornate crest on top of the head might have been useful in attracting a mate. Beauty, even in the late cretaceous period, was in the eye of the beholder.
The desert terrain of northern Mexico has made dinosaur hunting difficult there. For lack of rain, there is little erosion, so buried fossils are rarely exposed over time.
Velafrons coahuilensis was found, like many fossils, by accident. Parts of it protruded from the earth on the outskirts of the small Mexican town of Rincon, Colo.
Volunteers from the area tried for a decade to dig it up. Not until 2002 did scientists from Utah mount an expedition. They saw how difficult the dig would be, and came back with a jackhammer.
It took two years, back at the lab, for the skull to be reconstructed. They also found fossils of turtles, fish and lizards buried in the area around the dinosaur skeleton.
What killed the great animal? That question is as mysterious as the many about how it lived.
Scientists wonder about the geography of the area. Central America would not have formed yet 72 million years ago, so Mexico would have been the southern end of the continent. It is quite possible, say the researchers, that the young dinosaur was caught in a prehistoric hurricane.
"This discovery is part of a new window that's being opened up," said paleontologist Scott Sampson of the Utah Museum. "It won't be the only Mexican dinosaur for long."
"The really cool thing about these duck-billed dinosaurs is that their nasal passages probably allowed them to make some kind of music," said Gates. "We don't know exactly what kinds of sounds they would make, but it is likely to be somewhat like what trumpeters make." Were they more like Miles or Dizzy?”
Woman, 89, uses ax to smash door glass after being locked out (The Obscure Store)
"Marketers salivate over lickable ads" (WSJ)
We have a great deal of respect for all the great metaphysical traditions, economics in particular. The Nobel people think these guys are doing dynamite work.
Why Youth Hostel Showers Are Like The Stock Market: Variety Provides Stabililty
ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2008) — Diversity keeps you warm. At least that is true while you're having a shower in youth hostels. If you like, this sums up the research project just published by scientists from the Universities of Fribourg and Bonn. Their result is not as trivial as it sounds. Ultimately it shows that heterogeneity provides stability, whether this is in a shower, in power grids or even on the stock market.
Having a shower in a youth hostel can be risky when there is not enough hot water for everybody. If only one visitor turns up the hot tap during the early morning shower, everyone else is threatened by an icy gush of water. This unwanted form of hydrotherapy is particularly likely to happen when all the shower taps have the same possible settings, in other words if cold and hot water can be adjusted to exactly the same amount in all showers. But if the water taps in each shower have their individual quirks, the risk of extreme fluctuations is less.
At least that is what the Bonn economist Christina Matzke and her colleague Damien Challet, a physicist at the University of Fribourg, say. They modelled the temperature profile of showers in a youth hostel on the computer. 'All in all, heterogeneous taps offer advantages -- they prevent the average shower temperature of all guests from suddenly dropping or rising,' Christina Matzke explains. 'From the perspective of the individual they also have disadvantages, as it's more difficult for each person to set the right temperature.'
The problem sounds comical, but in principle it can be applied to all situations where people compete for a scarce resource, whether this is hot water, electricity or equities. One thing is always true, the more individualistic the behaviour of those involved in the market is, the more stable the whole system becomes. Put simply, the only reason why our electricity grid does not break down is that not all the inhabitants of Germany switch on the tumble drier at the same time. And if all shareholders made strictly rational decisions on their investments, there would probably be a lot more turbulence on the stock market.
The result is also significant from a theoretical point of view. 'We show what different results economic models can produce, depending on whether they are based on homogeneous or heterogeneous behaviour,' Christina Matzke emphasises. Accordingly, it is important to account for differences in individual behaviour when making forecasts. Although it sounds obvious, economists long ignored this insight. For decades their models were dominated by 'homo economicus', an imaginary standardised market investor who always made rational decisions rather than deciding according to individual criteria.
From this thing that look like a rummage sale ashtray we can deduce that this creature was 25 feet long. At least it was in the afternoon.
A Baby Dinosaur, 72 Million Years Old
By NED POTTER/ABC News
The Mexican state of Coahuila, due west of the southern tip of Texas, is arid country today. But 72 million years ago it was a tropical paradise, warm and moist, close to a vast sea that divided what eventually became North America.
Now, scientists report they have found a new dinosaur species there -- one of the very few ever discovered in Mexico.
It was apparently a duck-billed plant eater, probably about 25 feet long. Scientists hesitate to guess too much about it, but they say they can tell from its bone structure that it was probably not fully grown. An adult of the species could have been 10 feet longer.
"Close your eyes," said Terry Gates, a paleontologist at the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. "I want you to imagine yourself on a beach in Puerto Vallarta. Nice day, with the sun and the ocean -- and then, when you open your eyes, you're suddenly looking at this thing."
Gates was on the team, from Mexico, Canada and the United States, that dug up the fossil and reconstructed it. The work took more than 10 years, partly because the skull was shattered -- and buried under 12 feet of rock and dirt. They called the new species Velafrons coahuilensis.
It is different from almost any other duck-billed dinosaur ever found. The reassembled skull has a large hollow bulge on top, through which it probably breathed.
"The really cool thing about these duck-billed dinosaurs is that their nasal passages probably allowed them to make some kind of music," said Gates. "We don't know exactly what kinds of sounds they would make, but it is likely to be somewhat like what trumpeters make."
Gates said it is likely that such an ornate crest on top of the head might have been useful in attracting a mate. Beauty, even in the late cretaceous period, was in the eye of the beholder.
The desert terrain of northern Mexico has made dinosaur hunting difficult there. For lack of rain, there is little erosion, so buried fossils are rarely exposed over time.
Velafrons coahuilensis was found, like many fossils, by accident. Parts of it protruded from the earth on the outskirts of the small Mexican town of Rincon, Colo.
Volunteers from the area tried for a decade to dig it up. Not until 2002 did scientists from Utah mount an expedition. They saw how difficult the dig would be, and came back with a jackhammer.
It took two years, back at the lab, for the skull to be reconstructed. They also found fossils of turtles, fish and lizards buried in the area around the dinosaur skeleton.
What killed the great animal? That question is as mysterious as the many about how it lived.
Scientists wonder about the geography of the area. Central America would not have formed yet 72 million years ago, so Mexico would have been the southern end of the continent. It is quite possible, say the researchers, that the young dinosaur was caught in a prehistoric hurricane.
"This discovery is part of a new window that's being opened up," said paleontologist Scott Sampson of the Utah Museum. "It won't be the only Mexican dinosaur for long."
"The really cool thing about these duck-billed dinosaurs is that their nasal passages probably allowed them to make some kind of music," said Gates. "We don't know exactly what kinds of sounds they would make, but it is likely to be somewhat like what trumpeters make." Were they more like Miles or Dizzy?”
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