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The Long Goodbye For The Altantic Ocean: Newly Forming Subduction Zone Found

The Long Goodbye For The Altantic Ocean: Newly Forming Subduction Zone Found

Jun 17 2013 | comment(s)

The end of the Atlantic Ocean is coming. 

A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal shows that a passive margin in the Atlantic ocean is becoming active and Europe could to move closer to America, according to a paper in Geology.

Gene Patents II: The Contradictions And Loopholes

Gene Patents II: The Contradictions And Loopholes

Jun 16 2013 | comment(s)

The US Supreme Court recently sided with patient advocacy groups that a company cannot patent your genes.  Sounds like a pretty clear case, but the decision also creates some exceedingly odd loopholes, and even loopholes within loopholes, to say nothing of the fact that Justice Scalia dissented with the uncontroversial, basic science introduction to the case.

Mystery Of How Black Holes Produce So Many X-Rays Solved?

Mystery Of How Black Holes Produce So Many X-Rays Solved?

Jun 16 2013 | comment(s)

The gap between hypothesis and observation is never more evident than efforts to figure out howblack holes produce so many high-power X-rays.

Have Baseball Throwing Injuries In Young Players Gone Up?

Have Baseball Throwing Injuries In Young Players Gone Up?

Jun 16 2013 | comment(s)

The big question in many aspects of medicine is whether there is more of something or if it is simply better diagnosis than in the past.

In youth baseball programs, throwing injuries seem to have gone up despite pitching limits that weren't evident in the past. Professional baseball once used a four-man rotation and there was no consideration at all about pitching for kids.

But a multicenter, national research study says serious pitching injuries requiring surgery have skyrocketed, with one estimate reporting serious throwing injuries are occurring 16 times more often today than just 30 years ago.

Water: Still Not A Great Lubricant

Water: Still Not A Great Lubricant

Jun 15 2013 | comment(s)

Water in the Earth's upper mantle and crust likely plays a less important role as a lubricant of plate tectonics than previously assumed, according to a paper presented by geoscientists present in the current issue of Nature (13/06/2013) after the examination of water in the mineral olivine.

Laboratory experiments over the past three decades have suggested the presence of water greatly weakens the mechanical strength of the mineral olivine, a key component of the Earth's upper mantle.

In the recent study, led by the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Bayreuth, the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (SIMS) facility at the Potsdam based GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences was used to reassess the importance of water in defining the rigidity of olivine. 

GMO Wheat In Oregon Isolated

GMO Wheat In Oregon Isolated

Jun 15 2013 | comment(s)

Not that most people were worried but the US Department of Agriculture has found that genetically modified wheat found in Oregon last month has remained in one field.

Genetically engineered wheat is not sold in the U.S. so the USDA is investigating how the engineered wheat got there. It is the same strain of Monsanto grain that passed tests a decade ago but it has never been submitted for approval to be sold.

Three countries, including Japan, suspended imports of western white wheat from the Pacific Northwest while the USDA investigates. That's okay, we don't buy produce from Fukushima prefecture either - at least our mutations are controlled.
Pandora's Promise: Director Robert Stone Takes On The Anti-Nuclear Movement

Pandora's Promise: Director Robert Stone Takes On The Anti-Nuclear Movement

Jun 14 2013 | comment(s)

Do you like nuclear weapons?

If you respond yes to that, I think you have lost your mind. While I understand the value of an overwhelming force to end a bloody world war, it's also something that can't be unmade.  We had opened "Pandora's Box", the belief went.
Gene Patents: Justice Scalia Dissents On High School Science

Gene Patents: Justice Scalia Dissents On High School Science

Jun 14 2013 | comment(s)

The U.S. Supreme Court just released a groundbreaking decision about the ability to patent genes – the assembly instruction for life.  

Amid much discussion about potential implications for the biotech industry, a separate, extremely troubling aspect of this decision has largely slid under the radar: one of the SCOTUS Justices dissented with basic science saying he is "unable to affirm... knowledge or even my own belief" in high school biology
Around The Arctic June 2013

Around The Arctic June 2013

Jun 14 2013 | comment(s)

Around The Arctic June 2013


The Arctic is currently primed for rapid and extensive ice loss, unless we see some very unusual weather conditions this Summer.

The state of the ice can be seen in the following series of satellite images from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System - EOSDIS.  EOSDIS produces near real-time data and makes images such as the Arctic mosaic and the Near Real Time (Orbit Swath) Images available on the web.
Serial Blind-Spot For Organic Advocates

Serial Blind-Spot For Organic Advocates

Jun 14 2013 | comment(s)

Biological Costs

Biological Costs

Jun 14 2013 | comment(s)

In several posts the question of biological costs is invariably mentioned in discussing evolution.  These costs are normally of the metabolic or fitness type.  Metabolic costs are associated with the existence of a particular trait and the energy necessary for the trait's existence, while fitness costs are those that have an impact on the organism's ability to survive and reproduce (1).

In most instances, these concepts are taken from economic analogies, yet, like economics, the concept of cost is meaningless without a context.  The two defining elements that must be considered are value and affordability.
'Spiritual But Not Religous'? Don't Trust Them

'Spiritual But Not Religous'? Don't Trust Them

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

In the last two generations, the designation 'spiritual but not religious' has become popular. It's hard to know what it means - atheists and religious people are at least taking some sort of stand - but one thing sociologists say they do know: Young adults who deem themselves "spiritual but not religious" are more likely to commit both violent and property crimes than young people who self-report religious belief ("religious and spiritual" or "religious but not spiritual").

Parasites Get No Respect In Food Web Theory?

Parasites Get No Respect In Food Web Theory?

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

Parasites comprise a large proportion of the diversity of species in every ecosystem but they are rarely included in analyses or models of food webs.  Would it make a difference?

A new paper says that
including parasites does alter the structure of food webs, but that most changes occur because of an increase in diversity and complexity, rather than from unique characteristics of parasites.

Lone Signal: METI Teams Up With Citizen Science To Try And Make First Contact

Lone Signal: METI Teams Up With Citizen Science To Try And Make First Contact

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

If you want to make sure your extra-terrestrial efforts can survive a nuclear attack, working inside the Jamesburg Earth Station on, fittingly, ComSat Road, just outside Carmel, California, is a fine choice. A short drive to Pebble Beach and Spyglass golf courses means it is not a bad way to spend your weekends either.

If you enjoyed seeing Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon, Jamesburg is one of the dishes you can thank. But the 10-story high antenna went out of service in 2002. The land was sold to a gentleman who wanted a vacation home - the coolest Cold War vacation home ever, if you ask me, with blueprints and cinder block walls and a room the size of a football field.
METI: Should We Be Shouting At The Cosmos?

METI: Should We Be Shouting At The Cosmos?

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

David Brin first wrote this in 2006, summarizing a controversy that was then emerging among members of the community engaged in SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent civilizations. Since I am covering a new effort at METI - Messaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent civilizations - going online next week, he sent me this in our email exchanges and agreed to repost it here and provide a follow-up addendum at the end - Hank
Like World War Z Or Justin Bieber? Thank Evolution

Like World War Z Or Justin Bieber? Thank Evolution

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

If you watch musicals from the 1950s or teen comedies from the 1990s, you find a lot of movies with different titles but the themes and plotlines barely change; two friends competing for a girl in the former or some teen wants to improve another teen, who becomes really popular, in the latter.

It's not that Hollywood lacks imagination, we are naturally drawn toward a specific set of universal narratives within cultural products, says a new paper. We have evolved to like stories about Superman saving strangers or Brad Pitt fighting zombies. 

If You're One In A Million, You'll Have 11,000 Clones By 2100

If You're One In A Million, You'll Have 11,000 Clones By 2100

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

A new statistical estimate projects that the world population could reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report issued June 13 - about 8 percent more than their previous projection of 10.1 billion, issued in 2011. 

Preparing For The Next Megathrust Earthquake

Preparing For The Next Megathrust Earthquake

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

In the past 11,00 years, there have been 22 large and megathrust earthquake shaking events along the Pacific coast of North America, an average recurrence interval of about 500 years, though the time between major shaking events can stretch up to about 1,000 years, according to a new paper.

'Dinobird' Plumage Patterns Revealed By X-Rays

'Dinobird' Plumage Patterns Revealed By X-Rays

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)

X-ray experiments have found chemical traces of the original 'dinobird' Archaeopteryx and dilute traces of plumage pigments in a 150 million-year-old fossil.

Only 11 specimens of Archaeopteryx have been found, the first one consisting of a single feather. Until a few years ago, researchers thought minerals would have replaced all the bones and tissues of the original animal during fossilization, leaving no chemical traces behind, but two studies have turned up more information about this 'dinobird' and its plumage.

A Modest Proposal About How To Do GMO Food Labeling Right

A Modest Proposal About How To Do GMO Food Labeling Right

Jun 13 2013 | comment(s)