Oceans Getting Too Hot to Handle?
Tropical marine grazers may face a decidedly limited menu in a warming world. With rising temperatures, the ranges of many species of phytoplankton—the microscopic, plantlike organisms the grazers feed on—will shift away from the tropics and toward the poles, according to a new study. Up to one-third of tropical phytoplankton could be pushed out of tropical latitudes by 2100, the authors estimate.
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Great Barrier Reef's coral crisis could find help in deeper waters
A robot diving deeper than any human diver has found that coral deep below Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is very healthy even though the shallower coral is suffering from storms, warming seas and pollution. The robot’s handlers hope the deeper coral will provide the "recruits" needed to naturally repair the shallower reefs.
"Up until now our knowledge was limited to the shallow reefs accessible by scuba diving," Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, chief scientist for the Catlin Seaview Survey, said in a statement announcing the findings. "In reality, that provided us with an incomplete picture." The remote-operated vehicle, he added, allows scientists to study coral at depths between 90 and 300 feet, "revealing a wholly different picture which now includes the deep reef environment.". |  |
Feathery Ostrich Mimics Enfluffle the Dinosaur Family Tree
Another week, another feathery dinosaur. Since the discovery of the fluffy Sinosauropteryx in 1996, paleontologists have discovered direct evidence of fuzz, feather-like bristles and complex plumage on over two dozen dinosaur genera. I love it, and I’m especially excited about a discovery announced today. In the latest issue of Science, University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky adds another enfluffled species to the dinosaurian ranks. Even better, the specimens raise hopes that many more dinosaurs might be preserved with their feathery coats intact.
New Coelacanth Species Discovered in Texas
A new species of hundred-million-year-old coelacanth has been found, according to a new analysis of bone fragments.
One of the world's oldest types of fish, coelacanths (pronounced SEE-la-kanths) are primitive, slow-moving fish that had been thought extinct until an individual was found off Africa in 1938. There are now over 40 known coelacanth species. The two that live today are called living fossils because they have remained virtually unchanged for 320 million years.
One of the world's oldest types of fish, coelacanths (pronounced SEE-la-kanths) are primitive, slow-moving fish that had been thought extinct until an individual was found off Africa in 1938. There are now over 40 known coelacanth species. The two that live today are called living fossils because they have remained virtually unchanged for 320 million years.
Could the human clones of 'Cloud Atlas' be in our future?
A dystopian society supported by genetically modified clone workers stands out among the six stories that make up the sprawling film "Cloud Atlas." The idea may seem far-fetched because of political opposition to human cloning and genetic modification in today's world, but the science is closer than many people may think.
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Living Power Cables Made from Bacteria
Three years ago, scientists discovered electric currents running through the seabed -- but they had no idea what was causing them. But now, researchers from Denmark and the United States believe they have the answer: bacteria that function as living electrical cables. In a remarkable case of biological engineering, scientists have confirmed that each tiny section of the bacteria contains a bundle of insulated wires that leads an electric current from one end to the other.
The discovery could lead to an entirely new class of organic electronics -- including devices that could be implanted in the human body. |  |
Ancient prehistoric figurine discovered from the Middle Neolithic
In the course of the excavation process in Can Sadurní cave (Begues, Barcelona), members of the Col·lectiu per la Investigació de la Prehistòria i l’Arqueologia del Garraf-Ordal (CIPAG), together with the UB Seminar of Studies and Prehistoric Research (SERP), found the torso of a human figurine made of pottery.
Its chronostratigraphic unit makes it, until now, the most ancient human figurine of the Prehistory in Catalonia; it is dated 6500 years ago. |  |
Looters stripping Bulgaria of vast ancient treasures
ARCHAR, Bulgaria — On the banks of the Danube, in the northwest corner of Bulgaria, lie the remnants of an ancient Roman settlement called Ratiaria, host to a priceless cultural heritage. Craters pockmark the huge site, evidence of a scourge threatening one of the world's great troves of antiquities: looters digging for ancient treasure to sell on the black market.
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Penis-Shaped Bone & Lover's Bust Among Trove of Roman Art
Amateurs using metal detectors have discovered a trove of Roman artifacts, including a bust possibly depicting a male lover of a Roman emperor, a silver and gold brooch of a leaping dolphin and a penis-shaped animal bone.
The wide array of art, found across Britain, dates back about 1,600 to 2,000 years, when the Romans ruled the island. This art is among almost 25,000 Roman artifacts (the bulk of them coins) reported in England and Wales in 2011. They were documented as part of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and published recently in the journal Britannia. |  |
US returns 4,000 archaeological relics to Mexico
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — More than 4,000 archaeological artifacts looted from Mexico and seized in the U.S. have been returned to Mexican authorities in what experts say is one of the largest such repatriations between the countries.
The items returned Thursday mostly date from before European explorers landed in North America and include items from hunter-gatherers in pre-Columbian northern Mexico, such as stones used to grind corn, statues, figurines and copper hatchets, said Pedro Sanchez, president of the National Archaeological Council of Mexico. |  |
Medical marijuana: disabled veteran's appeal could change US drugs policy
A disabled veteran has told an appeals court that the department of veteran affairs policy on medical marijuana has caused him pain and significant economic harm, in a development campaigners say is a positive step in the battle to push for the drug's reclassification.
Michael Krawitz, one of five plaintiffs involved in a legal case before the court of appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit, told the Guardian that the VA denied him pain treatment after they discovered he had been prescribed medical marijuana while abroad. |  |
Cocaine, Marijuana in Italian Cities’ Air
Rome is known as a heady and stimulating city, but is that because it's a vibrant cultural center where modern life buzzes against a backdrop of thousands of years of history, or because small quantities of cocaine waft through the streets?
Researchers at Italy's Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research have published the results of a year-long study that monitored psychotropic substances in the air of eight Italian cities: Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin and Verona. |  |
How do-gooders threaten humble bee
The plight of the honey bee has triggered a huge increase inamateur beekeeping over the past decade, with individuals and companies rushing to put hives in their gardens or on city rooftops. But, for the first time, there are signs that the trend may be causing more harm than good.
A huge surge in bee colonies in London in the past few years has created intense competition for nectar and pollen. Honey yields in the capital are considerably lower than in previous years, figures to be published on Tuesday will show, suggesting that bees are struggling to produce enough to sustain their hives because of limited supplies of wildflowers. |  |
What makes us see Jesus in a taco, or a human face on Mars?
Photographer Todd Terwilliger calls this picture "Skull Flower," for reasons that should be obvious. Its resemblance to a human cranium is, of course, purely coincidental — yet the urge for our minds to register this plant as a piece of human anatomy is all but impossible to resist. But why?
The one-word answer, as some of you may know, is "pareidolia." But here's what you don't know: scientists this week presented some of the most compelling evidence to date that this pscyhological phenomenon is mediated by a region of the brain known as the fusiform gyrus. How did they find this culprit? Simple: by jolting that part of the brain with electricity, and watching their test subject's perception of reality liquefy into mind-bending absurdity. |  |
Pareidolic robot looks for faces in clouds
Product designer Neil Usher has built a robot that aims to "improve the efficiency of our leisure time" by automatically scanning for faces in clouds.
Usher describes the robot, called the Nimbus MkIII, as automating pareidolia -- the psychological phenomenon of ascribing significance to random or vague patterns in nature. Famous examples are the man in the moon, or hearing hidden messages on records being played backwards. Another example is spotting shapes in clouds. Usher's pareidolic robot scans the sky for patterns that resemble faces and, when it spots one, takes a photo. |  |
Scientist developing anti-suicide nasal spray
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana University School of Medicine scientist has been awarded $3 million to develop a nasal spray intended to combat suicidal thoughts among soldiers.
How Paintballs Could Save Earth from Giant Asteroid Impact
An epic battle between paintballs and a giant asteroid could one day save the Earth from an apocalyptic space rock impact.
The novel asteroid-deflecting scheme proposes that a cloud of paintballs shot into space could knock a dangerous asteroid off a collision course with Earth. Sung Wook Paek, an MIT graduate student, says a spacecraft could fire two rounds of pellets full of white paint powder at an asteroid to cover as much of the rock's surface as possible. The strategy, unveiled Friday (Oct. 26), won the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition, sponsored by the United Nations' Space Generation Advisory Council. |  |
Huge 'Zombie' Alien Planet Rises from the Dead
An enormous alien planet that some astronomers thought was dead and buried has come back to life, a new study suggests.
A new analysis of observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found that the bright nearby star Fomalhaut does indeed host a huge exoplanet, which scientists dubbed a "zombie" world in an aptly Halloween-themed video on the alien planet. This conclusion contradicts other recent studies, which determined that the so-called planet — known as Fomalhaut b — is actually just a giant dust cloud. |  |
Take your chance to scream in space
The first "Alien" movie was promoted with the celebrated tagline, "In space, no one can hear you scream." But a group of students want to find out if this is really true, and they're asking the public for help. Students from the University of Cambridge in the UK will be loading human screams onto a smartphone that will be launched into space in December 2012 on a nanosatellite.
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