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Convicts And Ecology - Using Prisoners To Monitor Growing Moss

Convicts And Ecology - Using Prisoners To Monitor Growing Moss

Oct 20 2008 | comment(s)

Nalini Nadkarni of Evergreen State College currently advises a team of researchers who sport shaved heads, tattooed biceps and prison-issued garb rather than the lab coats and khakis typically worn by researchers. Why is Nadkarni's team composed of such apparently iconoclastic researchers? Because all of her researchers are inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a medium security prison in Littlerock, Washington.

Why did Nadkarni recruit inmates into her research team? "Because," she explains, "I need help from people who have long periods of time available to observe and measure the growing mosses; access to extensive space to lay out flats of plants; and fresh minds to put forward innovative solutions."
What Do You Call A Huge Concentration Of Jurassic Footprints? A Dinosaur Dance Floor, Of Course

What Do You Call A Huge Concentration Of Jurassic Footprints? A Dinosaur Dance Floor, Of Course

Oct 20 2008 | comment(s)

University of Utah geologists identified an amazing concentration of dinosaur footprints that they call “a dinosaur dance floor,” located in a wilderness on the Arizona-Utah border where there was a sandy desert oasis 190 million years ago.

The three-quarter-acre site – which includes rare dinosaur tail-drag marks – provides more evidence there were wet intervals during the Early Jurassic Period, when the U.S. Southwest was covered with a field of sand dunes larger than the Sahara Desert.
The Earth Observation Handbook - Climate Change Special Edition 2008

The Earth Observation Handbook - Climate Change Special Edition 2008

Oct 20 2008 | comment(s)

The Earth Observation Handbook explains the vital role played by Earth observation satellites in providing the information needed by governments and policymakers to make well-informed decisions for a sustainable future.


This animation of carbon dioxide (CO2) shows how our planet ‘breathes’.

The Earth Observation Handbook is produced by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and represent the space based earth observation capacity of some 30 space agencies around the world.
Politics And US Innovation: It Has To Be About The Future, Not Just The Present

Politics And US Innovation: It Has To Be About The Future, Not Just The Present

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

The US Presidential candidates on fostering science and technology innovation:

For decades, the United States dominated the technological revolution sweeping the globe. The nation’s science and engineering skills produced vast gains in productivity and wealth, powered its military and made it the de facto world leader.

Social Bias - 40 Percent Of Parents Incorrectly Think Their Children Are Average Weight

Social Bias - 40 Percent Of Parents Incorrectly Think Their Children Are Average Weight

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

More than four in 10 parents with underweight and overweight children mistakenly believe their children are in the average weight range, according to University of Melbourne research.

The study also finds that different methods of assessing children's weight – such as BMI or waist circumference – result in different rates of children being identified as overweight or underweight. According to BMI, more children were classified as overweight, than compared to waist circumference.

More Coffee Means Less Breast Cancer, But Smaller Breasts

More Coffee Means Less Breast Cancer, But Smaller Breasts

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

While conducting a study about a link between breast size and heart cancer, Helena Jernström, an oncologist at Lund University in southern Sweden, discovered a gene that that about half of women possess is involved in breast cancer - and so is coffee.
Science 2.0 Gets A Version 2.0

Science 2.0 Gets A Version 2.0

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

If you've been around Science 2.0 for a while, you may notice something different this weekend. We've gone through a bit of a makeover. 

After 21 months, some 30,000 articles and a difficult to guess number of tens of millions of readers, something more like we had originally intended is finally here. Why did it take so long? Well, if it isn't broken, you don't need to fix it and clearly people have come here for quality writing. Appearance is secondary to our sort of audience.

But at some level you want the appearance and 'ease of use' to reflect the same quality the writing has. Scientific Blogging, Science 2.0 v1, could do everything, you just had to know how to find it.  And it wasn't pretty.

CTA 1 - 10,000 Year-Old Stellar Corpse Points To Evolution Of Pulsars

CTA 1 - 10,000 Year-Old Stellar Corpse Points To Evolution Of Pulsars

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. This object, known as a pulsar, is the first one known to "blink" only in gamma rays, and was discovered by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and international partners.

"This is the first example of a new class of pulsars that will give us fundamental insights into how stars work," says Stanford University's Peter Michelson, principal investigator for the LAT. The LAT data is processed by the DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and analyzed by the International LAT Collaboration.
4C60.07 Black Hole Shows They Weren't Uncommon Even 12 Billion Years Ago

4C60.07 Black Hole Shows They Weren't Uncommon Even 12 Billion Years Ago

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

Astronomers think that many - perhaps all - galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest that such colossal black holes were common even 12 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1.7 billion years old and galaxies were just beginning to form. The new conclusion comes from the discovery of two distant galaxies, both with black holes at their heart, which are involved in a spectacular collision.

4C60.07, the first of the galaxies to be discovered, came to astronomers' attention because of its bright radio emission. This radio signal is one telltale sign of a quasar - a rapidly spinning black hole that is feeding on its home galaxy.

BioTiger - Nifty Microbes Clean Up Oil Spills

BioTiger - Nifty Microbes Clean Up Oil Spills

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

A unique, patent-pending collection of microbes that can be used both for cleaning up the environment and addressing our energy needs has earned the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory kudos from a newsletter covering the rapidly expanding field of nanotechnology. 

Nanotech Briefs awarded SRNL's BioTiger™ a spot on its fourth annual Nano 50™ list, described as the top 50 technologies, innovators and products expected to revolutionize the industry. Nanotech Briefs will present the awards during the National Nano Engineering Conference, Nov. 12-13 in Boston. For more information, visit www.techbriefs.com/nano.
Plants And Pathogens - A Microbial SOS

Plants And Pathogens - A Microbial SOS

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered that when the leaf of a plant is under attack by a pathogen, it can send out an S.O.S. to the roots for help, and the roots will respond by secreting an acid that brings beneficial bacteria to the rescue.

The finding quashes the misperception that plants are "sitting ducks"--at the mercy of passing pathogens--and sheds new light on a sophisticated signaling system inside plants that rivals the nervous system in humans and animals.


The green represents the beneficial bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which has formed a biofilm on the Arabidopsis root surface.  Photo Credit: University of Delaware/Thimmaraju Rudrappa
Can A Single Molecule Help You Lose Weight?

Can A Single Molecule Help You Lose Weight?

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

A single molecule in the intestinal wall, activated by the waste products from gut bacteria, plays a large role in controlling whether the host animals are lean or fatty, a research team, including scientists from UT Southwestern Medical Center, has found in a mouse study.

When activated, the molecule slows the movement of food through the intestine, allowing the animal to absorb more nutrients and thus gain weight. Without this signal, the animals weigh less. 

The study shows that the host can use bacterial byproducts not only as a source of nutrients, but also as chemical signals to regulate body functions. It also points the way to a potential method of controlling weight, the researchers said.
Radiation Over Time - Diagnostics Can Be Nearly As Harmful As Diseases

Radiation Over Time - Diagnostics Can Be Nearly As Harmful As Diseases

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

According to a report by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation in 2000, patients are exposed to about 200 times more ionizing radiation than medical workers. In some countries, this figure can be nearly 500 times.

In the quest to discover the root of illnesses, patients have to undergo an increasing number of scans and tests that may involve the use of ionising radiation to detect the source and scope of an ailment. However, this practice could also put patients at risk.

"There has been concern that new technologies are not providing the amount of patient protection that medical professionals had expected.

Gene Therapy Restores Vision From Macular Degeneration (In Mice)

Gene Therapy Restores Vision From Macular Degeneration (In Mice)

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have used gene therapy to restore useful vision to mice with degeneration of the light-sensing retinal rods and cones, a common cause of human blindness. Their report, appearing in the Oct. 14 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes the effects of broadly expressing a light-sensitive protein in other neuronal cells found throughout the retina.

Racial Cardiovascular Health Strangely Linked To Low Birth Weight And Even Slavery

Racial Cardiovascular Health Strangely Linked To Low Birth Weight And Even Slavery

Oct 19 2008 | comment(s)

Two new articles examine the theory of "fetal programming" and their effect on racial health disparities. The studies, published in American Journal of Human Biology, suggest that the higher rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease present in African Americans may be a consequence of low birth weights, and that these low birth weights may be a result of social rather than genetic factors.
Resveratrol: Soft as Silk

Resveratrol: Soft as Silk

Oct 18 2008 | comment(s)

Don't worry, be happy. I mean you can have your own source of clean, natural resveratrol at home and drink it, too. Get the hint from the silkworm and grow mulberry trees all over the land. They already grow wild in North America.



Resveratrol is a polyphenolic phytoalexin (3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene) found naturally in several plants. I am not going to sing its benefits other than mention that this compound might protect us against cancer and cardiovascular disease as an antioxidant, antimutagen, and anti-inflammatory.


Bottoms Up: Rice University Students Work On Anticancer “BioBeer”

Bottoms Up: Rice University Students Work On Anticancer “BioBeer”

Oct 18 2008 | comment(s)

Tricking students into learning with fun has always been a ploy of educators. When I was a kid, my kindergarten teacher, tricked my class into enjoying reading by serving eggs and ham that were dyed green. In sixth grade, while studying Ancient Egypt, we made papier-mache sarcophagi. To this day, I still remember well Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham (I will not eat them, Sam I am), and I know what the heck a cartouche is.

Nowadays, students are embracing this same concept, incorporating their interests into their fields of study and making learning fun. They’re studying what they feel passionately about.

And what has always interested college students?--Beer. Duh. 

Prosody - Facial Expressions Are Worth 1,000 Words

Prosody - Facial Expressions Are Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 18 2008 | comment(s)

The extra layer of information that you add to a message when speaking is called prosody. The most important conclusion is that prosody lies not only in the voice but also in the facial expression. Further it appears that auditory and visual information together are more effective than the same information separately. 
Myelin And Middle Age - Brainwise, We All Start Slowing Down At 40

Myelin And Middle Age - Brainwise, We All Start Slowing Down At 40

Oct 18 2008 | comment(s)

In middle age we begin to lose myelin, the fatty sheath of "insulation" that coats our nerve axons and allows for fast signaling bursts in our brains. So if you want to be the best at anything requiring speedy brain reaction times, you'd better get it in by age 39.

Writing in Neurobiology of Aging, Dr. George Bartzokis, professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues compared how quickly a group of males ranging in age from 23 to 80 could perform a motor task and then correlated their performances to their brains' myelin integrity.

The researchers found a striking correlation between the speed of the task and the integrity of myelination over the range of ages. Put another way, after middle age, we start to lose the battle to repair the myelin in our brain, and our motor and cognitive functions begin a long, slow downhill slide.

'Plug-and-Play' Synthetic RNA Device

'Plug-and-Play' Synthetic RNA Device

Oct 18 2008 | comment(s)

Engineers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a "plug-and-play" synthetic RNA device--a sort of eminently customizable biological computer--that is capable of taking in and responding to more than one biological or environmental signal at a time.

In the future, such devices could have a multitude of potential medical applications, including being used as sensors to sniff out tumor cells or determine when to turn modified genes on or off during cancer therapy.

A synthetic RNA device is a biological device that uses engineered modular components made of RNA nucleotides to perform a specific function--for instance, to detect and respond to biochemical signals inside a cell or in its immediate environment.