Indian scientists try to crack monsoon source code
Scientists aided by supercomputers are trying to unravel one of Mother Nature's biggest mysteries -- the vagaries of the summer monsoon rains that bring life, and sometimes death, to India every year.
In a first-of-its-kind project, Indian scientists aim to build computer models that would allow them to make a quantum leap in predicting the erratic movements of the monsoon. |  |
Bacteria outbreak in Northern Europe due to ocean warming, study says
Manmade climate change is the main driver behind the unexpected emergence of a group of bacteria in northern Europe which can cause gastroenteritis, new research by a group of international experts shows.
The paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Sunday, provided some of the first firm evidence that the warming patterns of the Baltic Sea have coincided with the emergence of Vibrio infections in northern Europe. |  |
Western diet tied to heart risks in Asia
Singaporeans who regularly eat burgers and fries and other US-style fast food are at a raised risk of diabetes and more likely than their peers to die of heart disease, according to an international study.
But Asian fast foods, such as noodles or dumplings, did not bear the same risk, according to the study published in the journal Circulation. With globalisation, US-style fast food has become commonplace in East and Southeast Asia. The study looked at more than 60,000 Singaporeans of Chinese descent. |  |
Scientists read monkeys’ inner thoughts
Anyone who has looked at the jagged recording of the electrical activity of a single neuron in the brain must have wondered how any useful information could be extracted from such a frazzled signal.
But over the past 30 years, researchers have discovered that clear information can be obtained by decoding the activity of large populations of neurons. Now, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, who were decoding brain activity while monkeys reached around an obstacle to touch a target, have come up with two remarkable results. |  |
Saturn's Moon Titan May Have Seen Earth-Like Erosion
The thick, hazy atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest natural satellite, hides a complex moon with a perplexing geological past, a new study finds.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville studied images of Titan to investigate the erosion of its terrain, over millions of years, by rivers of liquid methane. The scientists found that in some regions, Titan's network of rivers caused surprisingly little erosion, which could indicate that erosion processes on Titan occur extremely slowly, or that a different, more recent phenomena is to blame for altering or eliminating ancient riverbeds and landforms, the researchers said. |  |
Million trees vow at ancient forest
A conservation charity is planning to plant a million trees over the next five years in a bid to regenerate an ancient Scottish forest.
Trees for Life's new campaign, Million More Trees, is said to be a response to environmental problems including deforestation, climate change and biodiversity loss. The trees will be planted in the ancient Caledonian Forest, which once covered the Highlands but only 1% of it remains. |  |
Rethinking Modern Human Origins
Modern humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa sometime between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. I’ve written that sentence many times. But what if it’s wrong? Paleoanthropologist Tim Weaver of the University of California, Davis argues there might be another way to interpret our species’ beginnings. Instead of a discrete origin event, he suggests in the Journal of Human Evolution that our ancestors’ arrival into the world might have been a lengthy process that occurred over hundreds of thousands of years.
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What Is the Nocebo Effect?
What if taking an absolutely harmless substance could make you sick? What if a sugar pill caused you to feel nausea, or a fake dose of lactose triggered unwelcome stomach symptoms in patients who are lactose intolerant?
The strange truth about medicine and the brain is that they often interact in completely unpredictable and counterintuitive ways. Nowhere is this more true than with the bewildering phenomenon known as the nocebo effect. Most of us already know about the placebo effect. As part of medical studies, a control group is typically given an inert substance (usually a sugar pill) that provides a baseline to which researchers can compare the effectiveness of the new medicine being tested. |  |
Artificial jellyfish engineered out of rat heart muscles
Scientists have made an artificial jellyfish out of rat heart muscles and rubbery silicon. When given an electric shock, it swims just like the real thing.
Future versions should be able to swim and feed by themselves.
“That then allows us to extend their lifetime,” John Dabiri, a professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, told me.
The breakthrough is a big step toward the development of an artificial human heart with living cells. It also opens a window to a future where humans could loosen the constraints of evolution.
Future versions should be able to swim and feed by themselves.
“That then allows us to extend their lifetime,” John Dabiri, a professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, told me.
The breakthrough is a big step toward the development of an artificial human heart with living cells. It also opens a window to a future where humans could loosen the constraints of evolution.
Human Ancestor Fossils Hidden in Plain Sight in Lab Rock
Two years ago, scientists announced they had discovered partial skeletons from a new species of human ancestor in a South African cave.
Now, more remains have turned up — in a large rock about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in diameter hiding in plain sight in a laboratory at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, the university announced today (June 12). The rock was found almost three years ago, but the true value of what it contained didn't become apparent until early last month, according to the university. |  |
Mystery of Lost Roman City Solved: Ancients Greened the Desert?
Today it's a mirage-like expanse of monumental ruins. But under the Roman Empire, Palmyra was a trading metropolis, according to historical and archaeological evidence.
Despite nearly a century of research, though, a key question remains unanswered: How did this city of 200,000 thrive in the middle of an infertile Syrian desert?
Once a required stop on caravan routes that brought Asian goods west to eager Romans, Palmyra (map) has "always been conceived as an oasis in the middle of the desert, but it's never been quite clear what it was living from," said Michal Gawlikowski, the retired head of the University of Warsaw's Polish Mission at Palmyra.
Despite nearly a century of research, though, a key question remains unanswered: How did this city of 200,000 thrive in the middle of an infertile Syrian desert?
Once a required stop on caravan routes that brought Asian goods west to eager Romans, Palmyra (map) has "always been conceived as an oasis in the middle of the desert, but it's never been quite clear what it was living from," said Michal Gawlikowski, the retired head of the University of Warsaw's Polish Mission at Palmyra.
Did We Meet Martians 36 Years Ago?
As we count down to the much-anticipated landing of NASA's six-wheeled Mars Science Lab (MSL) on Aug. 5/6th, it's noteworthy that 36 years ago today mankind made the first successful touchdown on the Red Planet.
The nuclear-powered Viking 1 lander settled down in a burst of retrorocket fire on a smooth circular plain close to the great volcanic Tharsis Bulge on July 20, 1976. Four billion years ago this region may have been a water-filled bay on Mars. Viking's first black-and-white image (above) of a footpad resting on an alien planet transfixed the world. |  |
Government nod for Mars mission soon
MYSORE: Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan on Saturday said the government's nod to the country's Mars mission is expected soon.
"India's much-awaited mission to Mars is in the final stage of approval," said Radhakrishnan. The mission will be launched from Sriharikota in Andhra either in November 2013, 2016 or 2018. "Many studies have been done relating to this mission,'' said Radhakrishnan. |  |
Learning to live off the land – on the moon
Forty-three years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history by becoming the first humans to set foot on the moon. Their stay was relatively brief - the Eagle landing craft spent just under 22 hours on the lunar surface. Since then, no human has spent more than three days there.
In that light, the potential for human colonies on the moon may seem somewhat remote. But a nine-day NASA field test being conducted this week could be "one small step" in the right direction. |  |
The 'chemputer' that could print out any drug
Professor Lee Cronin is a likably impatient presence, a one-man catalyst. "I just want to get stuff done fast," he says. And: "I am a control freak in rehab." Cronin, 39, is the leader of a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University, primarily making complex molecules. But that is not the extent of his ambition. A couple of years ago, at a TED conference, he described one goal as the creation of "inorganic life", and went on to detail his efforts to generate "evolutionary algorithms" in inert matter. He still hopes to "create life" in the next year or two.
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Gary Johnson Tries to Inject Pot Legalization Into the Presidential Race
Earlier this month, anonymous associates of President Obama whispered to Marc Ambinder that "if the president wins a second term, he plans to tackle another American war that has so far been successful only in perpetuating more misery: the four decades of The Drug War." The news was greeted with skepticism due to the fact that Obama broke prior promises about federal targeting of medical marijuana facilities and has zealously prosecuted current drug policy.
In a country where 50 percent of the population now favors legalizing marijuana, the Republican Party's candidate, Mitt Romney, is even less likely to take that course. Here he is angrily dismissing its importance.
In a country where 50 percent of the population now favors legalizing marijuana, the Republican Party's candidate, Mitt Romney, is even less likely to take that course. Here he is angrily dismissing its importance.
European cave art gets older
Red disks, hand stencils and club-shaped drawings lining the walls of several Stone Age caves in Spain were painted so long ago that Neandertals might have been their makers, say researchers armed with a high-powered method for dating ancient stone.
Scientists have struggled for more than a century to determine the ages of Europe’s striking Stone Age cave paintings. A new rock-dating technique, which uses bits of mineralized stone to estimate minimum and maximum ages of ancient paintings, finds that European cave art started earlier than researchers have assumed — at least 40,800 years ago, say archaeologist Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol in England and his colleagues. |  |
Errors in rhythm follow pattern, physicists find
Rhythm pulses inside the brain of a Ghanaian drummer, sitting in a physics laboratory in Gottingen, Germany. His hands caress the skin of a bongo drum, guided by the metronome’s tick through his headphones. He plays for five minutes, filling the sterile lab environment with staccato sounds, as a team of physicists records him, searching for a pattern.
But the researchers aren’t interested in what he does correctly — they are listening for his errors. Though the drummer is a professional, like all humans, his rhythm is imperfect. Each time his hand hits the drum, his beat falls ahead or behind the metronome by 10 to 20 milliseconds. On average, he anticipates the beat, and plays ahead of it, 16 milliseconds ahead — less than the time it takes a person to blink, or a dragonfly to flap its wings. What the physicists want to know is: Are these errors random, or correlated in a way that can be expressed by a mathematical law? |  |
Brilliant Scientists Are Open-Minded about Paranormal Stuff, So Why Not You?
In last week’s post on the Turing Test, I mentioned a fact I stumbled on in the Alan Turing exhibit at the Science Museum in London. The pioneering computer theorist was a believer in telepathy, or mind-reading. (Turing was apparently impressed by the card-guessing experiments of J.B. Rhine.) Then, last weekend, I learned that a prominent scientist whom I once interviewed had had a vivid vision of the violent death of his child shortly before it happened, an example of clairvoyance. Serious scientists aren’t supposed to believe in paranormal phenomena, sometimes called “psi,” and yet some serious scientists do. I thought it would be fun to list a few, starting with ones who, like Turing, have passed into the great beyond.