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Science Clamps Down On Chimpanzee Smugglers

Science Clamps Down On Chimpanzee Smugglers

Jan 22 2010 | comment(s)

Research published in BMC Ecology suggests that genetics may provide valuable clues as to how to crack down on the animal smuggling trade, while also helping to safely reintroduce rescued apes into the wild. The population of chimpanzees across western Africa has decreased by 75% in the past 30 years, due in part to widespread chimp hunting, and new strategies are needed to curb this illegal activity.

Researchers have been comparing genetic sequences from rescued chimpanzees with those of their wild counterparts across several areas of the country and its border with Nigeria. In doing so, they hope to determine where the rescued chimps come from and thereby assess whether smuggling was a widespread problem, or if hunting hotspots existed.
Photo Upload Jan 21 2010 21:55

Photo Upload Jan 21 2010 21:55

Jan 22 2010 | comment(s)

Abalone Shell Wonder, my banner background, by ImageAfter.com
Malnutrition Higher in Children Born to Child Brides

Malnutrition Higher in Children Born to Child Brides

Jan 22 2010 | comment(s)

Malnutrition higher in children born to child brides -

Infants born to child brides in India (married before the age of 18) have a higher risk of malnutrition than children born to older mothers, according to research published on bmj.com today.  However, low birth weight and childhood mortality are not significantly linked with the age of the mother, concludes the research, and the child's malnutrition was not related to the mother's body mass index.
The Himalayan Glacier Conspiracy

The Himalayan Glacier Conspiracy

Jan 22 2010 | comment(s)

As expected, this last round of information that corrected an error regarding the demise of the Himalayan Glaciers is now being touted as the latest evidence of the lies surrounding global warming.  Of course, the global warming "deniers" want to use this as evidence of deception, instead of acknowledging it as an error.

Instead of considering that it is the publication of such corrections which demonstrates how science works to resolve its mistakes and to validate its data, the global warming "deniers" just want to continue on their way with no more evidence than their beliefs.
Web Favorites: Every Day Universe Check

Web Favorites: Every Day Universe Check

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

At the start of every work day, I browse a short list of online resources to get a fresh sample of the happenings and themes active around my universe (meaning my particular, teeny-tiny subset of the Universe). I like to begin with a new "gist" of everything, from my peculiar perspective.

For fun, I am publishing the short list of web favorites I check daily to take a quick reading of the state of everything, with apologies to anyone who finds this collection old news. I have noticed that one persons "obvious" can be the next person's "oblivious."
Plot Of The Week - Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons Of The Third Kind

Plot Of The Week - Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons Of The Third Kind

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

I have no energy today to put together a detailed discussion of a brand new, exciting search for supersymmetric Higgs boson performed in data collected by the CDF experiment at the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider. All I can do for you is to show the interesting result of the search, and give you some very general ideas of what this is and why it is interesting. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday I will be able to pay more justice to the analysis.
Science & Social Media (AAS 215)

Science & Social Media (AAS 215)

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

I enjoyed presenting on Project Calliope two weeks ago, at the 215th AAS meeting.  I have a partial podcast of my talk in preparation, but in the meantime, here are the visual slides from my presentation (and also up as a PDF at ProjectCalliope.com.  The most important theme I covered was the shift from a tech mindset (build a crack engineering team) to a social mindset (gather a circle of interested people able to talk this up).   Though the value of the talk was in the dialog, not the slides, this does provide a useful basic primer on the how and why of launching a personal picosatellite.

Project Calliope
Science&Social Media

Sci-Fi at Dawn Treader

Sci-Fi at Dawn Treader

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

I'm up in Ann Arbor, doing a little mathematical modeling of gene regulation here at the U. of Michigan.

On my way to find some Chinese food, I stumbled upon an amazing book store called Dawn Treader. Always in quest of finding old paperbacks on my list of post-apocalyptic sci-fi (I've been intending to write more about a little science and post-apocalyptic fiction project I've been working on; unfortunately my days are limited to 24 hours), I went in and found a treasure trove of sci-fi, especially from the 30's-70's.

Here's my haul, at $2-3 a piece:

When Worlds Collide - Philip Wylie&Edwin Ballmer, 1932
Himalayan Hype : Reading Between The Lines

Himalayan Hype : Reading Between The Lines

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

Himalayan Hype : Reading Between The Lines

A recent IPCC news release admitting a small instance of bad science has triggered a flurry of news stories and blog articles based on worse science.  The IPCC error in question took figures, not from the scientist concerned, Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain, but from media reports of what he is claimed to have claimed.  Those media reports appear to have a common source: a 1999 New Scientist article by Fred Pearce.
Production of recombinant proteins in plants for pharmaceutical use

Production of recombinant proteins in plants for pharmaceutical use

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

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2000-2009: Warmest Decade On Record

2000-2009: Warmest Decade On Record

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

2009 was tied for the second warmest year on record, and in the Southern Hemisphere, last year was the warmest on record, according to a new analysis of global surface temperatures by NASA scientists.

Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade because of a strong La Nina that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to a near-record global temperatures as the La Nina diminished, according to the new analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The past year was a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest on record, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with a cluster of other years --1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007 -- for the second warmest on record.
How Do Outfielders Catch Fly Balls?

How Do Outfielders Catch Fly Balls?

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

How does an outfielder get to the right place at the right time to catch a fly ball? According to a recent article in the Journal of Vision, the "outfielder problem" represents the definitive question of visual-motor control. How does the brain use visual information to guide action?

To test three theories that might explain an outfielder's ability to catch a fly ball, researchers programmed Brown University's virtual reality lab, the VENLab, to produce realistic balls and simulate catches. The team then lobbed virtual fly balls to a dozen experienced ball players.
How Obesity Promotes Liver Cancer

How Obesity Promotes Liver Cancer

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

Epidemiological studies indicate that obesity comes with an increased risk of developing cancer, and especially certain types such as liver cancer. Now, a group of researchers reporting in Cell say they can explain how obesity acts as a "bona fide tumor promoter."

In the paper, researchers show that liver cancer is fostered by the chronic inflammatory state that goes with obesity, and two well known inflammatory factors in particular. The findings suggest that anti-inflammatory drugs that have already been taken by millions of people for diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease may also reduce the risk of cancer in those at high risk due to obesity and perhaps other factors as well.
How Important Is The Nuclear Family?

How Important Is The Nuclear Family?

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

The presumption that children need both a mother and a father may be readily accepted by many people today, but there is little evidence to support the idea, say sociologists from USC and NYU. In a new Journal of Marriage and Family study, the team argues that "fatherless" children are not necessarily at a disadvantage and that men do not provide a different set of parenting skills than women.

Extending their prior work on gender and family, Timothy Biblarz and Judith Stacey analyzed relevant studies about parenting, including available research on single-mother and single-father households, gay male parents and lesbian parents.
Llamas: The Ultimate Counter-Terrorism Weapon

Llamas: The Ultimate Counter-Terrorism Weapon

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

What does it take to stop a deadly bioterrorism attack? A strong military? Secured borders? Good Political leaders? If you chose any of the above, you're wrong. The answer is actually llamas--or their proteins to be exact.

According to a new study in PLoS One, single domain antibodies found in llamas (sdAb) may  help scientists detect botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), substances 100 billion times more toxic than cyanide, which the Centers for Disease Control says pose a potential bioterror threat.
Stalagmite Records Reveal Southwest's Abrupt Ice Age Climate Swings

Stalagmite Records Reveal Southwest's Abrupt Ice Age Climate Swings

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

The natural climate archives recorded in a stalagmite from a limestone cave in southern Arizona link the Southwest's winter precipitation to temperatures in the North Atlantic, according to new research in Nature Geoscience. The finding is the first to document that the abrupt changes in Ice Age climate known from Greenland also occurred in the southwestern U.S.

The stalagmite yielded an almost continuous, century-by-century climate record spanning 55,000 to 11,000 years ago. During that time ice sheets covered much of North America, and the Southwest was cooler and wetter than it is now.
'Useless' Information Becomes Useful As We Age

'Useless' Information Becomes Useful As We Age

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

As people age, they gradually lose their ability to filter out irrelevant information. But that may actually give aging adults a memory advantage over their younger counterparts, according to a new study appearing in Psychological Science.

The study demonstrated that when older adults "hyper-encode" extraneous information – and they typically do this without even knowing they're doing it – they have the unique ability to "hyper-bind" the information; essentially tie it to other information that is appearing at the same time.
How Plants Outsmart Their Two-Faced Pollinators

How Plants Outsmart Their Two-Faced Pollinators

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

Some animal-pollinated plants face an interesting dilemma. The same animals they rely on for pollination also like to eat them. This is the case for Nicotiana attenuata, a wild tobacco plant that grows in the American Southwest. The plant is pollinated by the night-active hawkmoth, which after the quib pro quo exchange of pollination for nectar likes to lay its eggs on N. attenuata—eggs that develop into voracious, leaf-eating caterpillars.
Let's Save The Planet...As Long As It's Convenient

Let's Save The Planet...As Long As It's Convenient

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

Young people are all for saving the environment--as long as doing so makes economic sense, according to new research conducted at Michigan State University.

Based on a survey of 18- to 30-year-olds, researchers from MSU's Eli Broad Graduate School of Management found that young consumers will not pay a premium price for an automobile simply because it is environmentally friendly. Instead, the determining factor – by far – is fuel efficiency.

The findings reveal an eco-savvy generation that has grown up and is coming to grips with the economic reality of paying bills.
Vaccinia Virus Spreads Four Times Faster Than Thought Possible

Vaccinia Virus Spreads Four Times Faster Than Thought Possible

Jan 21 2010 | comment(s)

Viruses are thought to spread by entering a cell, replicating, and then moving on to infect new cells. But a new study published in Science reveals that some viruses spread much faster than previously thought, and it may be possible to stop the spread of disease by slowing them down.

Using live video microscopy, the scientists discovered that the vaccinia virus was spreading four times more quickly than thought possible, based on the rate at which it replicates. Videos of virus-infected cells revealed that the virus spreads by surfing from cell to cell, using a mechanism that allows it to bounce past cells that are already infected and reach uninfected cells as quickly as possible.