The Great Beyond - Blog Posts

Quotes of the day

dcressey — 2009-11-24T18:26:16+00:00

“Zhang Yujun was executed for the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means, and Geng Jinping was put to death after being convicted of producing and selling toxic food, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate People's Court said in a statement.”
Chinese state news reports that two people have been executed following the tainted milk scandal.

“When you have both exposures, there is a synergistic effect.”
Tanya Froehlich, of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, comments on her research showing that lead exposure and a mother’s smoking during pregnancy increase the risk of children having ADHD (Detroit Free Press).

“Our data suggest that people's beliefs affect how light or dark they perceive someone to be.”
Eugene Caruso, of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, seems to have found that politically liberal people see President Obama’s skin tone as lighter than politically conservative people (NPR).

What’s in store for UK science?

ngilbert — 2009-11-24T17:48:02+00:00

At an event at Cambridge University last night, Paul Drayson, the science minister; Adam Afriyie, the shadow science minister (pictured right); and Evan Harris, science spokesman for the Liberal Democrats shared a platform for the first time to debate university and science policy. This could have been potentially interesting and to start with the atmosphere of the crowd, made up mainly of public and private researchers, was excitable and hopefully expectant. But in the end, everyone left a bit disappointed.

Both Drayson for Labour and Adam Afriyie for the Conservative Party, made a commitment that science would be in their respective party’s election manifestos. But it was only Harris who could elaborate in any detail what his party’s policies on science would look like in the future.

Predictably, Drayson attempted to dazzle the crowd with Labour’s past achievements on science, including a doubling of the budget to over £3 billion a year. “We should be judged on our track record,” he urged. “We get science.” It’s true; scientists have never had it as good as they have over the past 12 or so years. But times and the financial circumstances have changed and little will be gained from living in the past. The question is: what does the road ahead look like under Labour?

Beam me νp!

gbrumfiel — 2009-11-24T17:47:52+00:00

Today saw the start of a new major new experiment in Japan that will beam neutrinos from one side of the country to the other. Neutrinos are neutral, elementary particles denoted by the Greek letter ν (hence the clever title), and they come in three types. The Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment hopes to better understand how they oscillate, that is switch from one kind to another. They do that by firing neutrinos created by the 30GeV main ring of the proton synchrotron at JPARC in Tokai to a massive detector filled with 50,000 tons of ultra-pure water in the Kamioka mine in Gifu (neutrinos don't interact very often with the rest of the world, so it takes a detector that size to see anything).

Neutrino oscillations are an important detail in the Standard Model of particle physics, and T2K hopes to better pin down the exact nature of the oscillations.

Physicists in the United Kingdom played a big role in the T2K project. They designed the target that creates neutrinos out of protons at JPARC and wrote the data acquisition software for some of the detectors. All told, the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) estimates it spent around £14.3 million on the project.

Unfortunately, many physicists are worried about the UK's continued participation in the T2K project. The STFC is currently suffering from a £40 million funding shortfall, and is reviewing major projects like T2K to decide which to keep and which to cut.

I wrote a story for this week's issue of Nature that discusses the STFC's situation in depth (although we didn't go into T2K specifically). It will be out tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Credit: Kamioka Observatory, ICRR, Univ. of Tokyo

On the Origin of Species: happy 150th birthday

dcressey — 2009-11-24T17:16:14+00:00

Today is the 150th anniversary of the first publication of On the Origin of Species.

Why not celebrate by checking out Nature’s Darwin special? This week is our third Darwin celebrating issue, focusing on biodiversity.

If you want more, here’s more…

The BBC notes that a first edition of On the Origin is being auctioned off today after its discovery in a toilet. It was expected to reach around £60,000 but actually sold for £103,250 according to Christie’s.

The Times notes that a search of Britain is being organised for a missing Darwin notebook. “Temptingly pocket-sized, it was probably stolen in the late 1970s from the study table where he worked at Down House, near Biggin Hill in Kent, where he wrote Origin and all his later major works,” adds the Guardian.

In the Independent, Steve Connor writes about ‘Darwin’s true heir’: “His name is Edward O. Wilson”. Meanwhile, NPR declares that On the Origin, “may be more controversial today than when it first appeared”.

Greg Ladin has a thoughtful blog about the book, and says, “The Origin of Species was itself a bit like a Noachian flood in that as we look back we often imagine a pre-Origin dark ages of theological misunderstandings washed away by the flood of The Origin which gets it all right. And this is true to some extent from a purely scientific point of view, but in the broader context of the history of good ideas and the still broader context of the history of all ideas (good or bad) it simply isn't close.”

And finally, this seems like a good occasion to resurrect our word cloud picture of On the Origin, reproduced right for your pleasure.

LHC crosses the beams

dcressey — 2009-11-24T14:54:40+00:00

The Large Hadron Collider has finally collided something!

Actually, given the woes that have beset the particle physics experiment, the LHC has probably been responsible for several previous collisions: between physicists’ heads and various walls at the CERN complex. But now it has begun the proper smashing – that of particles against other particles – by cross the beams of protons that have been circulating around the giant ring since last week.

In a statement, CERN said:

Beams were first tuned to produce collisions in the ATLAS detector, which recorded its first candidate for collisions at 14:22 [yesterday] afternoon.

This image shows the first possible collision seen at the ATLAS experiment:

Image: CERN

From the mouths of snakes

dcressey — 2009-11-24T14:20:52+00:00

New species are discovered all the time, but it’s not quite so frequent for them to fall out of the mouths of snakes.

Andrew Marshall, of the University of York, was surveying monkeys in the Magombera Forest in Tanzania when he surprised a twig snake having dinner (or perhaps breakfast). The poor snake dropped the chameleon it was attempting to ingest and our story begins.

“It saw me and fled, and as it did so spat out a chameleon,” says Marshall (Daily Telegraph). “I took photos and showed them to a local herpetologist, who instantly recognised that it was a new species.”

That first example didn’t survive its encounter with the snake but another was later found and they have both now been named as Kinyongia magomberae – the Magombera chameleon – and reported in the African Journal of Herpetology (press release).

Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case with new species these days, the habitat of this critter is already under threat.

Marshall told the Guardian, “The thing is, if you work in an area of conservation importance and you can give a species the name of that area it can really highlight that area. By giving it the name Magombera it raises the importance of the forest.”

Personally though, I would have preferred him to name it something more related to its discovery, Kinyongia serpens-cibus perhaps? (Apologies in advance to Latin-scholars for that one.)

Image: Andrew Marshall / African Journal of Herpetology

DNA database must be reformed, advisors tell UK government

dcressey — 2009-11-24T12:24:13+00:00

The UK’s controversial DNA database should be reformed with a new legal basis and independent supervision, says government’s independent genetics advisory body.

Although it now contains the details of five million people, many of whom have never been convicted of any crime, the database has never been formally debated by Parliament, says the Human Genetics Commission.

The commission says there are also “real concerns” about discrimination against certain ethnic groups. Its report ‘Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?’ notes that over 8% of the UK population is currently profiled on the database. But it contains the profiles of over three quarters of black men between the ages 18 and 35. Some may have been arrested purely to obtain their DNA.

The report comes after the European Court of Human Rights demanded that the government stop keeping the DNA of innocent people (the government responded by proposing to hold such DNA for ‘only’ six years).

“DNA evidence plays a significant role in bringing criminals before the courts and securing convictions. But it is not clear how far holding DNA profiles on a central database improves police investigations,” says Jonathan Montgomery, chair of the commission (press release).

“We have to strike a proper balance between identifying offenders and protecting privacy, including that of innocent people, we should not compromise that privacy without good reason.”

Montgomery’s report says the database should be established in law through new legislation in Parliament, with unambiguous definitions of how its records can be used. It also calls for new guidance on when DNA samples should be taken, and notes that one police officer said that police were now arresting people to obtain DNA when previously they may have pursued another course of action.

However, the report sidesteps the issue of retaining the DNA of “unconvicted individuals” saying that the government should support a national debate to address which of these individuals should have their profiles retained and which should not.

Image: Getty

On Nature News

dcressey — 2009-11-24T01:29:08+00:00

Icelandic genomics firm goes bankrupt
deCODE's demise leaves fate of its valuable genetic database unclear.

Bubble-fusion scientist debarred from federal funding
Office of Naval Research passes verdict on controversial researcher Rusi Taleyarkhan.

Diagnosing the future of genomics
Eric Green discusses his priorities as newly appointed director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute.

Kids in the Lab

lbuchen — 2009-11-23T18:17:56+00:00

President Barack Obama today announced the establishment of National Lab Day as part of his administration's new campaign for science and technology education.

The grassroots effort includes community volunteers, organizations of teachers, scientists and engineers and partnerships with private businesses. It plans to give 10 million children, grades six through 12, an opportunity to "launch rockets, construct miniature windmills and get their hands dirty", Obama said during the announcement.

NLD is no "bring your daughter to work" day — the kids will be in it for the long haul, relatively speaking. The first annual NLD will run the first week of May 2010, and will be the culmination of a series of laboratory activities, with "laboratory" meaning everything from a facility with bubbling chemicals, to a classroom, to a laptop linked to the LHC. Teachers propose projects on the NLD website, and scientists, sponsors and other volunteers can then search through the proposals and decide which they'd like to help out with.

In line with Obama's claim that "we're going to show young people how cool science can be," one of the proposed projects would teach kids how to program apps for iPhones or Androids. Another proposal wants to bring hands-on plate tectonic studies to Ohio, and one in California hopes to study endangered species, including running PCRs on DNA from California condors.

Obama's "Educate to Innovate" campaign also includes a number of larger business partnerships; the private sector has alread committed more than $260 million, he said. For example, the MacArthur Foundation is partnering with Sony and other technology companies to fund science-related video games, and Sesame Street will begin a two-year focus on math and science.

Image: NIH.gov

RIP Konstantin Feoktistov

dcressey — 2009-11-23T17:16:25+00:00

Russian spacecraft designer and cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov died at the age of 83 on Saturday.

Feoktistov was one of three men to take part in the first group space flight in 1964 and was the first civilian in space. His presence was disapproved of by the government Politburo as he was not a Communist Party member.

“I had many enemies who did not want me to make that flight,” he said in 1998 (Boston Globe, via LA Times obituary). “Once we took off, I remember thinking ‘That’s it. No one can get me off this spaceship now!’ For me, it was a thrill to ride that beast.”

Feoktistov helped design not only the Voskhod craft that carried him into space but also the iconic Sputnik.

“The memory of Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov will forever remain in our hearts,” said the Russian space agency in a statement.

Image: 1964 Soviet Union 4 kopeks stamp featuring Feoktistov / via wikipedia.

Cassini phones home with more plume shots

dcressey — 2009-11-23T16:32:07+00:00

NASA’s Cassini probe has again flown by Saturn’s moon Enceladus. And just like last time, it’s sent back some pretty pictures of the plume of water jetting from moon’s south pole.

“These first raw images are spectacular, and paint an even more fascinating picture of Enceladus,” says Bob Pappalardo, the Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (press release).

NASA scientists are now stitching together a mosaic image of the ‘tiger stripe’ fissures around the south pole where jets of water originate.

More pictures from the flyby:


Enceladus approximately 133,963 kilometers away	Enceladus approximately 16,583 kilometers away	Mimas approximately 587,461 kilometers away

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Football isn’t rocket science, it’s brain science

bmaher — 2009-11-23T15:56:47+00:00

While American football commentators jokingly talked about contacting rocket scientists to assess the statistical wisdom of a disastrous play call by the New England Patriots last week, the National Football League is actually considering upping its use of brain scientists to combat head injuries. The NFL will reportedly have teams work with independent neurologists on concussion issues according to the Associated Press.

Although concussions are an annual hot topic during the football season, they’ve taken new urgency with recent research and a congressional investigation into the lasting effects of repeated head on collisions including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. One player contended that team doctors are worrying more about the win than the player's safety and quality of life post-retirement. Still, an AP poll of 160 players recently revealed that many players purposely underreport the effects and severity of head collisions so that they can continue playing.

Last week the Wall Street Journal, proposed a simple solution, remove the helmets and players would be more careful about protecting their noggins. Just look at rugby where there are a few “freak accidents” but less tendency to “lead with your hat.”

The NFL responded that that’s not really something they’d consider. Americans don’t want to watch rugby, apparently.

Image: Tackle by Wigstruck via Flickr under creative commons.

One finger one thumb, keep moving

ksanderson — 2009-11-23T14:41:08+00:00

Galileo’s thumb, middle finger and a tooth have turned up at an auction and are due to be put on display at Florence's History of Science Museum, to be reunited with a finger of his already in the museum’s collection.

The rather gruesome tale begins in 1737 some 95 years after Galileo’s death, when “enthusiastic admirers” removed body parts when his corpse was being moved to Santa Croce Basilica in Florence.

According to CNN, “Two of the fingers and the tooth ended up in a sealed glass jar that disappeared sometime after 1905.” That glass jar ended up being auctioned and landed in the hands of museum director Paolo Galluzzi.

The story goes on to explain that the jar had been labelled, but that label was lost by the time of the auction (which begs the question – why was there any interest in a jar containing an unknown persons fingers and tooth?).

Galluzzi says he has no doubt that these are the genuine articles (BBC), and the museum will be putting the finger, thumb and tooth on display along with the finger they already have, next year.

Apparently the missing fingers were those Galileo would have used to write with, and the gesture of removing them was reminiscent of the way saints’ bodies would be mutilated after death by admirers. This could be a nod to the fact that scientists of the day held Galileo in the highest esteem, but as a scientist, not a Christian.

Image: Galileo, from Astronomy Picture of the Day

Is east Antarctic ice melting?

dcressey — 2009-11-23T12:34:29+00:00

The ice sheet covering east Antarctica may have been melting since 2006, according to new research, contradicting previous suggestions that it has remained stable or even grown in mass.

Using measurements for 2002 to 2009 from a twin pair of satellites, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, say east Antarctica is losing mass at about 58 gigatonnes a year. Most of the loss appears to be from coastal regions and to stem from increased ice loss post 2006.

Previous studies have generally used satellites to measure elevation or movement of ice. The new study - published in Nature Geoscience - instead looks at the Earth’s gravity field and uses that to work out how much ice is there. It also suggests that 132 Gt of the total annual ice loss of 190 Gt per year is coming from the west.

Although there are uncertainties in the data, the new estimates of ice loss are on average consistent with previous calculations, “but, in contrast to previous estimates, they indicate that as a whole, Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea-level rise”, the researchers write in their paper.

The finding is significant because the east of the continent has traditionally been seen as the more stable half. It is also the bigger half so if it is melting it could contribute more to sea level rise.

“We felt surprised to see this change in east Antarctica,” says study author Jianli Chen (BBC, Guardian). “If the current trend continues or gets worse, Antarctica could become the largest contributor to sea level rises in the world. It could start to lose more ice than Greenland within a few years.”

Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol, told Bloomberg he was also surprised, as those previous studies have suggested the East Antarctic Ice Sheet really wasn’t changing that much.

“This result really confirms that there are very substantial inconsistencies between different estimates,” he says. “The margins of error are so large that it can be difficult to draw strong conclusions.”

Image: Antarctic continent surrounded by sea ice / NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center / Scientific Visualization Studio, Canadian Space Agency, RADARSAT International Inc.

Weird beasts from the abyss

dcressey — 2009-11-22T18:00:24+00:00

The jumbo dumbo (Photo courtesy of Mike Vecchione)

New species of 'dumbo' (Photo courtesy of David Shale)

Although the census on marine life isn’t due to report properly until late next year, the scientists involved have decided to whet our appetites with details of deep see ‘jumbo dumbo’ octopi, ‘indescribable invertebrates’, and worms that drill for oil nearly a kilometre below the surface.

In total, five deep-sea projects will have undertaken 210 expeditions when the census has been completed.

“There is both a great lack of information about the ‘abyss’ and substantial misinformation,” says Robert Carney, of Louisiana State University. “Many species live there. However, the abyss has long been viewed as a desert. Worse, it was viewed as a wasteland where few to no environmental impacts could be of any concern.”

Now that they have stared into the abyss, says Carney, the census scientists are concerned. Here are some of the critters they are concerned about.

Collected between 1,000 to 3,000 meters deep, was a very large example of a finned octopod, normally called a dumbo due to its endearing habit of swimming by flapping a pair of large fins that look like ears.

This jumbo example was nearly two metres long and 6 kg heavy, the largest ever collected. In total nine species were found on the mid-Atlantic ridge, including one new to science.

Later a huge catch of corals, sea cucumbers and sea urchins was pulled up from the ridge. Researchers described it as “indescribable”. “It’s hard to believe that such exuberance of life exists a kilometre deep into the ocean,” says the census.

The team also pulled up a Neocyema, the strange orange thing pictured below, only the fifth example of this fish ever caught.

Perhaps the strangest find though was a Lamellibranchia tubeworm. When a robot arm lifted the worm clear of the sea floor, crude oil started leaking from the hole it had left behind. Apparently the worm had been feasting on the oil.

More photos below the fold...