Neuroscience: The mind reader
Adrian Owen has found a way to use brain scans to communicate with people previously written off as unreachable. Now, he is fighting to take his methods to the clinic.
Adrian Owen still gets animated when he talks about patient 23. The patient was only 24 years old when his life was devastated by a car accident. Alive but unresponsive, he had been languishing in what neurologists refer to as a vegetative state for five years, when Owen, a neuro-scientist then at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues at the University of Liège in Belgium, put him into a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine and started asking him questions. Incredibly, he provided answers. |  |
Study proves bears can “count” as well as primates
Most people readily accept that bears are smart animals. In fact, most wildlife biologists regard bears as some of the most intelligent land mammals on Earth; and yet, there's very little formal research to support what everyone pretty much accepts as true. Now, in the first study of its kind, researchers Jennifer Vonk and Michael J. Beran have demonstrated that American black bears can differentiate between groups of dots on a touchscreen computer, based on the number of dots each group contains.
|  |
[Follow article link...]
Voyager 1 About to Become Interstellar Emissary?
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft may be getting its first taste of interstellar waters beyond our sun's familiar shores and, like the pioneers that first took to the oceans to explore seas unknown, the 34-year-old robotic spacecraft is about to make history as the first man-made object to venture beyond the known horizon.
This historic announcement was made on Thursday by the team keeping a careful eye on Voyager 1's particle detectors who noticed an uptick in interstellar cosmic ray counts in recent years. That can mean only one thing: the mission is beginning to leave the outermost regions of the heliosphere -- the farthest extent of the sun's influence. |  |
Australia Creates World’s Largest Marine Reserve Network
Australia will establish the world’s largest network of marine reserves, the country’s environment minister, Tony Burke, announced yesterday evening. The reserves will cover nearly 1.2 million square miles—a third of the nation’s waters—of reef and marine life around the country’s borders.
The plan, which introduces a series of 60 reserves, will protect the Coral Sea, as well as pygmy blue whale habitats off the southern coast of Western Australia. It will curb commercial and recreational fishing. The Coral Sea reserve, which includes 25 reef systems, will become the second largest “no-take”—or fully protected—marine sanctuary after the Chagos Island Marine Reserve in the Indian Ocean. This part of Australia’s proposed marine reserve system will span 194,000 square miles as a part of a larger marine protected area in the Coral Sea that covers 386,100 square miles, according to the Pew Environment Group’s press release. |  |
Disease and the Demise of the Dinosaurs
There are more than 100 hypotheses for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Asteroid impact is the most famous, and the effects of volcanic eruptions, sea level change and climate fluctuations remain debated, but other fantastic and weird ideas have been tossed around. Many of the discarded notions, proposed before we knew an extraterrestrial bolide struck the Yucatán Peninsula, cited pathologies as the deciding factor. Cataracts, slipped discs, epidemics, glandular problems and even a loss of sex drive have all been proposed as the reason non-avian dinosaurs perished about 66 million years ago. In fact, pioneering paleopathologist Roy Moodie suggested that a startling number of accidents and injuries could have killed Triceratops and kin.
|  |
Colour this chimp amazing
In what seems like a blow for humanity, a very smart chimpanzee in Japan crushes any human challenger at a number memory game.
After the numbers 1 through 9 make a split-second appearance on a computer screen, the chimp, Ayumu, gets to work. His bulky index finger flies gracefully across the screen, tapping white squares where the numbers had appeared, in order. So far, no human has topped him.
Ayumu’s talent caused a stir when researchers first reported it in 2007 (SN: 12/8/2007, p. 355). Since then, the chimp’s feat has grown legendary, even earning him a starring role in a recent BBC documentary.
After the numbers 1 through 9 make a split-second appearance on a computer screen, the chimp, Ayumu, gets to work. His bulky index finger flies gracefully across the screen, tapping white squares where the numbers had appeared, in order. So far, no human has topped him.
Ayumu’s talent caused a stir when researchers first reported it in 2007 (SN: 12/8/2007, p. 355). Since then, the chimp’s feat has grown legendary, even earning him a starring role in a recent BBC documentary.
Lost ruins revealed: Laser survey strips the forests of Honduras
LiDAR survey carried out by field teams from the University of Houston (UH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), has mapped a remote region of Honduras indicating the locations of several new archaeological sites.
The results, recently announced by Honduras President Porfirio Lobo, mark the successful completion of the first light detection and ranging (LiDAR) survey of part of that country’s Mosquitia region, one of the world’s least-explored virgin rainforests.
The results, recently announced by Honduras President Porfirio Lobo, mark the successful completion of the first light detection and ranging (LiDAR) survey of part of that country’s Mosquitia region, one of the world’s least-explored virgin rainforests.
Cities Bet They Can Curb Traffic With Games of Chance
The largest lottery jackpot in history inspired Americans to spend $1.5 billion for a slim chance at riches this year. Transportation experts are wagering that this fervor for small gambles can be put to use solving a big urban problem: traffic congestion.
Two experimental transportation projects under way this year in Singapore and Silicon Valley aim to improve commutes through gaming. Thousands of commuters so far have decided it's worth the effort to change their routines for a shot at $50 or $100. |  |
Japan Disaster Spawns Geiger Counter for Citizens
Japan's nuclear meltdown in the aftermath of the March 11, 2011 earthquake inspired the creation of a grassroots radiation sensor network and a homemade Geiger counter for ordinary citizens. The DIY Geiger counter has since gone on presale for a limited time before the more expensive official version hits store shelves.
Anyone can buy the half-price $400 version of the new Geiger counter through the Kickstarter project organized by the global "Safecast" project — the grassroots organization founded in the wake of Japan's disaster in March 2011. The smartphone-size device is being advertised as a "Swiss army knife of Geiger counters," because it can measure beta and alpha particles as well as gamma radiation. |  |
Elvis Presley Song May Reveal Clues to Genetic Disorder
Even the toughest of hearts might melt at the sound of Elvis Presley crooning his classic song, “Love Me Tender.” Now a new study shows that when people with the genetic disorder Williams syndrome listen to that song or others, they experience changes in levels of the hormones associated with feelings of love.
The findings provide clues about the genes that are tied to people's emotions, the researchers say. |  |
Jesus' Birthplace May Become First Palestine World Heritage Site
The holy city of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, thought to be the birthplace of Jesus, may become the first World Heritage Site in the Palestinian territories, according to UNESCO.
In its 36th yearly session, the World Heritage Committee — consisting of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention — will consider 36 possible World Heritage sites, from June 24 to July 6 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. |  |
Astronauts to Hold Summer Olympics in Space
To mark the upcoming Olympic Games in London, a crew of astronauts due to launch to the space station this summer is planning an orbital sporting event for the occasion.
NASA astronaut Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko are due to launch July 14 to the International Space Station. |  |
Syracuse University researchers use nanotechnology to harness power of fireflies
What do fireflies, nanorods and Christmas lights have in common? Someday, consumers may be able to purchase multicolor strings of light that don't need electricity or batteries to glow. Scientists in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences found a new way to harness the natural light produced by fireflies (called bioluminescence) using nanoscience. Their breakthrough produces a system that is 20 to 30 times more efficient than those produced during previous experiments.
Sun Blasts Huge Magnetic Bubble at Earth
For the second day in a row, an active region on the sun has erupted with a coronal mass ejection (CME), blasting a beautifully dynamic magnetic bubble of energetic plasma in the direction of Earth. It is powering through interplanetary space at a breakneck speed of 1,360 kilometers per second (that's over 3 million miles per hour!)
A NASA spacecraft -- one of two solar satellites called the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) that are orbiting the sun in opposite directions -- watched the CME expand and get launched into interplanetary space from a perfect vantage point. |  |
North Carolina to Sea Level Rise: Go Away
Climate scientists are watching anxiously as some state legislatures seek to restrict how state agencies and planners prepare for potential sea-level rise.
According to an editorial in the Miami Herald: Last year the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which had commissioned a scientific study of Galveston Bay, excised references to rising sea levels. “You can debate climate warming, but sea level is going up; it’s measured globally, with satellites,” the study’s lead author, John Anderson of Rice University, told reporters. “For them to be so bold as to remove it — they actually omitted whole sentences that mentioned sea level rise.” A spokesman shrugged off the criticism, noting that the commission had paid for the study (albeit with public funds): “We have the right to make sure it reflects our views.” Last week in Virginia, the General Assembly approved a study on the effects of sea-level rise only after references to “sea level rise” were removed. The phenomenon has been rechristened “recurrent flooding.” References to “climate change” have similarly disappeared from the official Virginia lexicon. |  |
Letter from California: A New Look at the Donner Party
In late October 1846, an early snowstorm stranded 22 men, women, and children in Alder Creek meadow in California’s Sierra Nevada. The squall came on so fiercely and suddenly that the pioneers had just enough time to erect sleeping tents and a small structure of pine trees covered with branches, quilts, and the rubber coats off their backs. Living conditions were crowded, and their wool and flannel clothes were useless against leaks and the damp ground. As time passed, seasoned wood became so hard to find that the stranded pioneers, known as the Donner Party, were often without fire for days. Huddled under makeshift shelters, the migrants ate charred bone and boiled hides until they turned to more desperate measures to survive. Today the people of the Donner Party are remembered for cannibalizing their dead in a last-ditch effort to survive.
|  |
Tomb of the Chantress
On January 25, 2011, tens of thousands of protestors flooded Cairo’s Tahrir Square, demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. As the “day of revolt” filled the streets of Cairo and other cities with tear gas and flying stones, a team of archaeologists led by Susanne Bickel of the University of Basel in Switzerland was about to make one of the most significant discoveries in the Valley of the Kings in almost a century.
|  |
New Evidence Supports Theory of Extraterrestrial Impact
An 18-member international team of researchers that includes James Kennett, professor of earth science at UC Santa Barbara, has discovered melt-glass material in a thin layer of sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. According to the researchers, the material -- which dates back nearly 13,000 years -- was formed at temperatures of 1,700 to 2,200 degrees Celsius (3,100 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit), and is the result of a cosmic body impacting Earth.
|  |