Attractive women face discrimination when it comes to landing certain kinds of jobs, especially those with job titles like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor where appearance is considered unimportant, says a new study.   The discrimination was done by both men and women.

But attractive men were not discriminated against, even by women.  It is called the "beauty is beastly" effect, where attractiveness is a hindrance.   

That title reads like a headline from The Onion, right?   Researchers have noted that while media is often blamed for violence and poor grades in kids, it can also do some good.  

Researchers at Mahidol University in Bangkok found the type and amount of vegetables children ate improved after they took part in a program using multimedia and role models to promote healthy food, according to their paper in Nutrition&Dietetics

Twenty six kindergarten children aged four to five participated in the eight week study. The researchers recorded the kinds and amounts of fruit and vegetables eaten by the children before and after the program.

A group of researchers mimicked the surface of the Moon in their basement and concluded that it was always inherently dry.

They used an ion beam accelerator underground at Los Alamos National Laboratory to simulate solar winds on the surface of the Moon and their table-top simulation was able to help formulate an analysis of chlorine isotopic ratios in lunar rock samples that seem to indicate that the Moon never had water of its own.

The Isaiah Scroll is the oldest-known copy of any book of the Bible and after 12 years of researching the Dead Sea Scrolls,  Robert Cargill, an archaeologist from UCLA, got to visit the underground vault beneath the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.

In a new Cell study, researchers say they have uncovered a new role for an essential cell protein polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPASE) in shuttling RNA into the mitochondria, the energy-producing 'power plant' of the cell.

The import of nucleus-encoded small RNAs into mitochondria is essential for the replication, transcription and translation of the mitochondrial genome, but the mechanisms that deliver RNA into mitochondria remain poorly understood.

Arctic Newsflash! Petermann Ice Tongue Loses Huge Chunk


I have been watching the Petermann Glacier ice tongue for some time now.

Here is what I wrote in  Arctic Ice July 2010 - Update #3:

Judging from historic maps and images, the normal behavior of the Petermann ice tongue was the formation of a concave front at the fjord mouth.  Over recent years it has retreated.  Much of the tongue is now detached from the walls of the fjord.  Tidal forces will flex the tongue up and down: wind, currents and ice floe impacts will all exert at least a small lateral force on the tongue.  It will continue to thin from melting.

Arctic Ice August 2010 - Update #1


Most of the fires in Siberia seem to have been put out or burned out.  Meanwhile, the fires near Moscow continue to burn and there are more fires in Alaska.  I have made a mosaic composite showing the fires at the time of writing.  I have enhanced some of the red fire markers where they were faint in the MODIS originals.  Please note that the size of a red blob does not equate to the size of the fire.


The Arctic - August 04-05 2010 - approx. 2km resolution.

Boston had 8 days of above-90 degree Fahrenheit heat temperatures last month, while New York City had 14, Philadelphia had 17 and Washington, DC had 20.

While those numbers are above historical averages (5, 7, 11, and 13 days, respectively) they are beneath consensus projections for the average July by just the middle of this century, assuming nothing is done to reduce pollution of heat-trapping gases.   Under that scenario, Boston can expect an average of 12 July days above 90, New York can expect 16, Philadelphia 21, and Washington, DC 22.

A blob-like creature that lived in the ocean approximately 425 million years ago was revealed in research published today.

The scientists developed a detailed 3D model of the only known fossilized specimen in the world of a creature called Drakozoon. The specimen was found by one of the team approximately 6 years ago in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte, one of England's richest deposits of soft-bodied fossils.   Drakozoon lived in the ocean during the Silurian Period, 444 to 416 million years ago, and today's model hints at how it lived.