from BBC News Online
The US and European space agencies have signed the "letter of intent" that ties together their Mars programmes.
The agreement, which was penned in Washington DC, gives the green light to scientists and engineers to begin the joint planning of Red Planet missions. The union will start with a European-led orbiter in 2016, and continue with surface rovers in 2018, and then perhaps a network of landers in 2018.
The ultimate aim is a mission to return Mars rock and soils to Earth labs. The Washington document was signed by the heads of the agencies, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden and Esa director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain.
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from Natural History
... The idea of an afternoon spent fishing for and handling eels has long since fallen out of favor in the United States. Likewise, eels themselves have disappeared from North American cuisine, where for a long time they held a high place.
... Even though people around the world have been eating freshwater eels, and researchers (beginning with Aristotle) have been studying them, for thousands of years, much about the animals remains unknown.
Spurred by global population declines, however, scientists are beginning to unlock some of the freshwater eels' millennial mysteries. And they are closing in on the long-standing goal of breeding eels and raising them to adulthood in captivity on a commercial scale ...
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from the New York Times (Registration Required)
We've all heard the story of the third Little Pig, who foiled the hyperventilating wolf by building his house out of bricks, rather than with straw or sticks as his brothers had done. Less commonly known is that the pig later improved his home's safety profile by installing convex security mirrors at key points along the driveway.
Well, why not? In the current issue of Animal Behaviour, researchers present evidence that domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and will use their understanding of reflected images to scope out their surroundings and find their food.
The researchers cannot yet say whether the animals realize that the eyes in the mirror are their own, or whether pigs might rank with apes, dolphins and other species that have passed the famed "mirror self-recognition test" thought to be a marker of self-awareness and advanced intelligence.
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from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
Which is better for weight loss--a high-protein diet or a high-carb diet? That endless debate got a new twist Monday.
In a yearlong study, Australian researchers found that both diets worked equally well when it came to shedding pounds but those on the low-carb diet were in considerably worse moods.
The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, assigned 106 overweight and obese men and women to either a low-carb diet high in fat and protein or a high-carb diet low in fat and protein. The participants' weight was noted at weeks eight, 24, 40 and 52, and their emotional state was evaluated via three standard questionnaires measuring aspects of mood, including anxiety, depression and anger.
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from the Washington Post (Registration Required)
We used to hear so much about the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, but lately not a word. So what happened: Did we save it, or not?
We didn't save it, but we haven't stopped trying. Environmentalists fret over the fate of the Amazon for good reason: It contains more than half of the planet's remaining tropical rain forest, one-fifth of our global freshwater and as much as one-third of the world's biodiversity.
Saving all this was once a rallying cry for green activists, and a few early triumphs made that goal seem likely. But attention soon shifted away from the rain forest to such issues as climate change and organic agriculture, and now the Amazon is disappearing at about the same rate it was in the 1980s.
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from USA Today
... Numerous studies aim to decipher how much genetics play a role in resilient aging as well as what life habits seem to enhance mental and physical well-being deep into the golden years. Scientists are finding that a rich and active social life combined with exercise are key factors.
And though genetics appears to influence longevity, a person's attitude about aging may be a driving force for whether he spends the later years of life in a nursing home or polar-bear-watching off a ship's deck in the Arctic ....
"The way you view the aging process, positively or negatively, is going to affect your quality of aging," says Luigi Ferrucci, director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging at the National Institute on Aging. The 51-year study has tracked thousands through their young- and middle-adult years into old age.
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from BBC News Online
Hundreds of experts from 50 nations are set to agree on a "DNA barcode" system that gives every plant on Earth a unique genetic fingerprint. The technology will be used in a number of ways, including identifying the illegal trade in endangered species.
The data will be stored on a global database that will be available to scientists around the world. The agreement will be signed at the third International Barcode of Life conference in Mexico City on Tuesday.
"Barcoding is a tool to identify species faster, more cheaply and more precisely than traditional methods," explained Patricia Escalante, head of the zoology department at Mexico's National University (UNAM), which is hosting the gathering.
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Scientists say gene therapy may be on the verge of a resurgence following reports of three recent successes involving a childhood brain disease, an eye disease and a childhood immune disorder.
Obesity appears to be a risk factor for developing life-threatening complications from H1N1 influenza, researchers reported, and patients over age 50 are most likely to die from the virus, but less likely than children and young adults to contract it in the first place.
In other biomedical news, a large study has found that the old way of doing heart bypass surgery, in which the heart was stopped and a heart-lung machine employed during the procedure, works better than newer "off-pump" surgery.
With $170 million in federal grants, teams of stem cell researchers around the U.S. are joining forces in their quest for new therapies for a variety of human disorders.
Scientists have decoded the DNA of the domestic pig, which may eventually prove useful in finding new treatments for both pigs and people. Researchers use pigs to study everything from obesity and heart disease to skin disorders.
The Los Angeles Times was among media outlets to recount the career of French philosopher Claude Levi-Strauss, widely considered the father of modern anthropology. He died recently at his home in Paris at age 100.
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Researchers reported last week that new evidence suggests that giant tsunamis from the eruption of Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea more than 3,000 years ago inundated coastal sites across the Eastern Mediterranean.
In other news of the ancient past, researchers said a fossil in London's Natural History Museum is from the oldest known relative of the carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex. It was found in Gloucestershire in the 1900s.
Elsewhere, researchers said the Nazca people of Peru may have been at least partly responsible for their own demise. The evidence suggests that deforestation for agriculture by the ancient civilization left the landscape vulnerable to a devastating El Niño-fueled flood.
And, finally, academics reported that creationism is increasingly being embraced by Muslims, but that those who believe God made the universe in just a few thousand years are rare. The Koran's metaphorical reckoning of time was cited as the main reason.
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A European satellite was launched from Russia last week on a mission to map how water is cycled around the Earth. The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (Smos) satellite is one of a number of European spacecraft being sent into orbit over the next few years to study the planet.
In other news of space, NASA's Messenger probe has found richer concentrations of iron and titanium on the surface of Mercury than had been previously detected.
On long space flights, cosmic rays could mutate microbes that all humans carry into something more dangerous, researchers reported. Recent studies have shown that microbes can reproduce more quickly and become more virulent under conditions found in space.
Speaking of cosmic rays, astronomers have traced gamma rays, the most energetic form of light, to galaxies where star formation is especially active. The finding provides new hints about the origin of cosmic rays.
And, finally, the ability to detect almost every form of electromagnetic radiation is helping astronomers fill in the blank spaces on their 3-D map of the universe.
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from the New York Times (Registration Required)
ICA, Peru -- A small grove of huarango, the storied Peruvian tree that can live over a millennium, rests like a mirage amid the sand dunes on this city's edge. The tree has provided the inhabitants of this desert with food and timber since before the Nazca civilization etched geoglyphs into the empty plain south of here about 2,000 years ago.
The huarango, a giant relative of the mesquite tree of the American Southwest, survived the rise and fall of Pre-Hispanic civilizations, and plunder by Spanish conquistadors, whose chroniclers were astounded by the abundance of huarango forests and the strange Andean camelids, like guanacos and llamas, that flourished there.
Today, though, Peruvians pose what might be a final challenge to the fragile ecosystem supported by the huarango near the southwestern coast of Peru. Villagers are cutting down the remnants of these once vast forests. They covet the tree as a source of charcoal and firewood.
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from the Economist
As woodlands in the warmer parts of the northern hemisphere come to the end of their fire season and their counterparts south of the equator prepare for the worst, people have begun to rethink how best to fight the wildfires, which seem to be getting fiercer and more frequent. With less winter snow on mountains as average temperatures rise, woods in many regions are drying out and becoming ever more vulnerable to fire.
The deadliest wildfire in Australia's history, which scorched a broad swathe of the landscape north-east of Melbourne earlier this year and killed almost 200 people, has prompted local authorities to question the country's long-standing policy of allowing residents to stay behind to defend their homes as the flames roar through.
Meanwhile, mistakes made in the early stages of a wildfire that raged across the mountains overlooking Los Angeles in August turned a containable blaze into the county's worst conflagration ever. In both instances, a heatwave following years of drought provided tinder for an arsonist's match.
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from the Boston Globe (Registration Required)
In pursuit of a prestigious prize, people often push the boundaries of what is possible.
The $10 million Ansari X Prize proved that to be true five years ago, when its winners launched a private manned vehicle into space. The prize spawned a resurgence of high-profile competitions, with private foundations and companies putting up hundreds of millions of dollars to solve technological challenges as urgent as building more efficient cars, and as trivial as predicting what movies people would like.
Recently, prize fever has also breached the thick walls of government bureaucracy, and more federal agencies are using competitions as a strategy to spur innovation. The competitions leverage modest amounts of taxpayer money to attract inventors and investors to certain scientific and technological problems.
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from Time
If you want to give a U.N. climate change negotiator indigestion, which isn't terribly hard to do these days, mention three letters: W-T-O. That stands for the World Trade Organization, the global body charged with supervising and liberalizing international commerce--and a whopper of a cautionary tale.
Back in November 2001, in Doha, Qatar, the WTO launched what is known as the Doha Development Round of negotiations, an effort to increase global trade by reducing trade barriers. Eight years later, the "round" is still ongoing, the talks riven by deep disagreements--especially over agriculture subsidies in the West--between developed and developing countries. There's no end in sight.
Now, global climate change negotiations appear headed toward the same aimless end. World governments will convene at the U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, a self-imposed deadline for producing a successor to the expiring Kyoto Protocol. But as diplomats in Barcelona today concluded the last round of official U.N. talks before the summit, it's becoming clear that any agreement between developed and developing countries on greenhouse gas emissions limits will be next to impossible by December.
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from Science News
Washington -- Designed to scan the heavens thousands to billions of light-years beyond the solar system for gamma rays, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has also picked up a shocking vibe from Earth. During its first 14 months of operation, the flying observatory has detected 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with terrestrial storms--and some of those flashes have contained a surprising signature of antimatter.
During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. Michael Briggs of the University of Alabama in Huntsville announced the puzzling findings November 5 at the 2009 Fermi Symposium.
It's a surprise to have found the signature of positrons during a lightning storm, Briggs said.
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from ScienceNOW Daily News
The headlines are laced with fear. "Nanoparticles 'can damage DNA.'" "Nanoparticle Safety Looking More Complicated." "Nanoparticles Indirect Threat to DNA." All seem to suggest that a new study, released [Thursday], has found that nanoscale materials, used in everything from medical imaging to cancer treatment, can damage genetic material in our bodies, feeding public fears.
But this particular study has little relevance to human exposure risks, experts say, and it is deeply flawed in other ways. "I think it's a meaningless study, to be blunt" says Günter Oberdörster, a nanotoxicologist at the University of Rochester in New York State.
Oberdörster and others agree that some concerns over nanoparticles are valid. These particles, 1 to 100 nanometers in size, are made from a wide variety and combination of elements. Their small size gives them unique optical, electrical, and chemical properties, raising concerns that they might have unforeseen effects in the body. And a variety of studies with animal models has shown that nanoparticles can trigger damage in living tissues.
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from National Geographic News
An odd star explosion 160 million light-years away might be the first proof of a theoretical new class of supernova, astronomers suggest.
Dubbed SN 2002bj, the blast was witnessed in 2002 and originally classified as a common Type II supernova. These explosions are thought to occur when the dense iron core of a massive star collapses.
But earlier this year Dovi Poznanski, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, took a closer look at the light signatures recorded during and after the explosion.
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from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
To many people, it's a health food. To others, it's simply soda in disguise.
That virtuous glass of juice is feeling the squeeze as doctors, scientists and public health authorities step up their efforts to reduce the nation's girth.
It's an awkward issue for the schools that peddle fruit juice in their cafeterias and vending machines. It's uncomfortable for advocates of a junk-food tax who say they can't afford to target juice and alienate its legions of fans. It's confusing for consumers who think they're doing something good when they chug their morning OJ, sip 22-ounce smoothies or pack apple juice in their children's lunches.
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from BBC News Online
Ed Miliband has said the UK cannot afford to "say no" to nuclear power as he prepares to announce plans to fast-track a new generation of reactors.
The energy secretary will give details of a list of sites judged suitable for new developments and say how planning reforms will speed up the process. Nuclear is a safe, low-carbon option to help tackle climate change, he said.
The Conservatives warned people would not be consulted while pressure groups said nuclear was "not the answer."
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from Smithsonian Magazine
Ned Gardiner, a scientist who specializes in mapping ecosystems, is fiddling with an instrument floating over the side of our wooden pirogue when the boat emerges from an eddy into the main stream of the Congo River. The transition from the still water to the turbulent flow swings the bow downstream and nearly knocks Gardiner into the water.
... The Congo is flowing at 1.25 million cubic feet of water per second, enough to fill 13 Olympic-size swimming pools every second. Gardiner, who works for the National Climatic Data Center, in Ashville, North Carolina, is here because he thinks the Lower Congo may contain the deepest point of any river in the world.
... The Congo's power--its depth, speed and turbulence--is of particular interest to ichthyologist Melanie Stiassny of the American Museum of Natural History, one of the scientists in our expedition. She studies fish on the lower Congo and over the past decade has discovered six new species (she's working on identifying three more). The number of species known to live in the lower Congo now exceeds 300 and the river contains one of the highest concentrations of "endemism," or species found nowhere else in the world. Stiassny thinks the river's power is shaping evolution in the Congo.
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Jorge Piedrahita, professor of genomics at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, describes his research with cloned swine and how their abnormal growth provides insight into human placental defects, the ways transgenic pigs may help grow human tissue and how pigs could help advance stem cell therapies. (March 25, 2009)
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from the New York Times (Registration Required)
Not long ago, gene therapy seemed troubled by insurmountable difficulties. After decades of hype and dashed hopes, many who once embraced the idea of correcting genetic disorders by giving people new genes all but gave up the idea.
But scientists say gene therapy may be on the edge of a resurgence. There were three recent, though small, successes--one involving children with a fatal brain disease, one with an eye disease that causes blindness and one with children who have a disease that destroys the immune system.
... Dr. Kenneth Cornetta, a gene therapy researcher at Indiana University and president of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, said: "It's exciting. The science gets better every year."
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from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
In an attempt to reduce the deaths and serious health problems caused by misuse of medication, the Food and Drug Administration is trying to identify the most serious threats and find ways to avoid them.
About 1.5 million preventable "adverse drug events" occur in the United States every year, according to a 2007 study by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences. Aside from the toll on health, the errors cost an estimated $4 billion a year, the study found.
"I was frankly stunned at the scope of the problem," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said at a news conference Wednesday. The plan, dubbed the Safe Use Initiative, "is something that doesn't require a new scientific discovery or a budget appropriation."
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from the San Francisco Chronicle
Stem cell researchers at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco and Stanford Medical School have joined a new national consortium linking teams of scientists who normally work independently with other groups that seek to discover new therapies for varied human disorders.
The government-funded venture will encourage the scientists working toward varied goals to share their research and collaborate with others using different approaches. The Gladstone-Stanford team is seeking to develop pluripotent stem cells, which are artificially derived from ordinary human tissue specifically for the purpose of repairing cells in damaged heart muscle.
Other Stanford scientists have teamed up with researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to learn how to reprogram the genes of adult stem cells into lines of specialized cells that could treat disorders of the blood and blood vessels.
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from the Washington Post (Registration Required)
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. (Associated Press) -- A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter Wednesday, qualifying for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators.
The highly technical contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, most familiar to the public as a space shuttle landing site.
The contest requires that the machines climb 2,953 feet up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly a mile high. LaserMotive's vehicle zipped to the top in about four minutes and immediately repeated the feat, qualifying for at least a $900,000 second-place prize.
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