Weekly Science Headlines

[Kai]

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/45531/title/Erosion,__on_the_down_low Physical rock weathering by symbiotic root fungi observed for the first time.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/45583/title/The__Biofuel_Future Big segment from Science News on alternative biofuels such as grasses and algae. I hope we get over the idea of corn ethanol as a viable future soon.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17543-gorilla-hiv-makes-leap-to-humans.html OhSHIT!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073002132.html Virginians create a new oyster reef out of old oyster shells, producing a thriving habitat that hasn't been seen in that region since early European settlement. Environmental engineering partnered with ecological understanding FTW.

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/pavlovs_microorganisms/ Classical conditioning ala pavlov shown in microorganisms.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=stumbling-over-data Regardless of whether you accept global rapid climate change or reject it, mistakes in the data don't help anyone's understanding of the issues at hand.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/729/2 All the fishes in the sea may be more responsible for stirring ocean water than climate. This one I saw twice today, and I'm not sure what to make of it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-eu-sci-particle-collider,1,4116618.story Large Hadron Collider delayed. AGAIN.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073002478.html Coming from a background of fisheries management, all I can say to this is DUH. Also, you didn't know that the Orange Roughy was originally called slimehead, did you?

http://www.the-scientist.com/templates/trackable/display/article1.jsp?type=article&o_url=article/display/55774&id=55774 Nice story about possible haddock fishery revival.

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/supersizing_quantum_behavior/ QUANTUM! But possibly very very cool.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/45958/description/Galaxies_going_green Green galaxies show to be as rare as green stars.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/3440B1ED10E3AC1A86257601000BB811?OpenDocument Gulf of Mexico dead zone smaller this year but not indicative of water quality increase. The shit we throw in is still as rotten as ever, folks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8172739.stm FIRE FIGHTING ROBOTS!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8164060.stm I don't believe this one, myself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/21distracted.html?_r=1 DUH!

[Kai]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/03/vitamin.d.children/ There's some confounding variables in this, but the conclusion is the same: get your kids the fuck off their playstations and outside, running around. Also, eat better.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/03/1m3scripps072547-scripps-team-manipulates-skin-cel/?science The fundies are gonna have a field day with this one. mice breeding from skin cells? UNHOLY BLASHPEMY AGAINST GOD AND NATURE~

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090731-green-sahara.html Sahara possibly to return to lush savanna with climate change. Kinda weird or cool, depending on how you think of it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8182371.stm Domestic dog ancestry may be rooted in Africa.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-deaf-children3-2009aug03,0,6159335.story Synthetic Coch....lea. This is actually pretty cool, something I haven't heard of before. The Cochlea is a rather complex organ, to be making synthetic versions of it.

http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/mitochondrial-death-channels/1 A full sized article about programmed cell death in relation to heart attack.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090728-first-animals-evolution-lakes.html A load of interesting speculation on multicellular animal origination.

[Kai]

http://www.the-scientist.com/2009/08/1/26/1/ Researchers studying regeneration in amphibians think of possible human implications.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/03/1c3darwin013535-drawn-darwin/?science The effect of On the Origin of Species in relation to the visual arts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8178703.stm The cause for epilepsy finally shown to be sodium/potassium imbalance and a particular faulty gene. This is all in mice, mind you, but I doubt it's much different for humans.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/52436272.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU Commercial space flights in two years? Not so sure about that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/science/04angier.html?_r=1 Although I knew the spleen played an important role in immunodefense, I didn't know how important. DO NOT FUCK WITH THE HAPPY FUN SPLEEN.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327191.600-dark-energy-may-disguise-shape-of-universe.html DARK ENERGY! I really wish they would come up with better terms for this stuff. Sounds like something straight out of new age.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8186263.stm HIV-1 genome decoded. Finally. It took long enough, as the article explains, because HIV is an RNA virus, not DNA based.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6739343.ece Corvids shown once again to be incredibly intelligent birds (to the shattering nonsurprise of everyone).

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6739343.ece Corvids shown once again to be incredibly intelligent birds (to the shattering nonsurprise of everyone).

After us humans finally kill ourselves off crows will be the next sentient species.

[fomenter]

An American inventor, Joshua Klein, is trying to harness crows' capabilities for social purposes, specifically clearing up litter. He is developing a crow vending machine that would give a reward in exchange for the litter, which he thinks the birds could learn to use.

this wont have any strange and funny unintended consequences

[Kai]

An American inventor, Joshua Klein, is trying to harness crows' capabilities for social purposes, specifically clearing up litter. He is developing a crow vending machine that would give a reward in exchange for the litter, which he thinks the birds could learn to use.

this wont have any strange and funny unintended consequences

I think the strange and funny consequences are the best part. 

[fomenter]

me to, i support both this experiment and implementing it nation wide quickly before the side effects become apparent, to maximise the fun and spread it as widely as possible...

[Kai]

http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/2009/08/this_just_in_african_village_d.php Follow up to the dog genetic diversity/origin story.

[Kai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GFq12w5WU Totally awesome TED talk on the field of Biomimicry.

[Kai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOSPNVunyFQ Another TED talk, this one on the evolution of skin pigmentation. I agree with everything except the migration map with arrows pointing from Europe to NA and not from Asia. Maybe I'm just way off on this, but I still haven't heard strong evidence for NA migration from Europe, and as I understand migration from Asia is still the more widely accepted hypothesis.

[Iason Ouabache]

Surely that is a mistake. I have NEVER heard anyone suggest that the Native Americans migrated from Europe. I'm pretty sure that there are several genetic studies out there that all but proved that they were more closely related to Russians and Chinese than Europeans.

[Kai]

Surely that is a mistake. I have NEVER heard anyone suggest that the Native Americans migrated from Europe. I'm pretty sure that there are several genetic studies out there that all but proved that they were more closely related to Russians and Chinese than Europeans.

I hope so.

[Kai]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/chi-grapefruit-juice-05-aug05,0,286430.story I have wondered for a while why people weren't supposed to wash down meds with grapefruit juice, but maybe for cancer drugs it would be best.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-glacier7-2009aug07,0,2419256.story Can't remember if I've talked about this already, but it's been on my mind. Benchmark glaciers receding.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090730-venice-buried-city-altinum.html News about the rediscovery of the first century Roman city Altinum under Italian corn-soy fields.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/science/space/06space.html Arg, this again? Look the allure of sending people into space is mostly over. It's costly and dangerous, and people would rather look at awesome space photos sent back by robotics than watch people spacewalking anyway. There's no reason to go to Mars, because we've been there for 5 years. This is the 21st century, this isn't space kindergarten anymore, we have robotics and can interact far better with extraterrestrial environments through them than we could if we went there ourselves. Enough said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/05/AR2009080500905.html This is exactly what we should be working on. Battery technology is/has been the thing holding us back from so many advances for the longest time now.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hurricane9-2009aug09,0,4856781.story Although hurricanes destroy cities and endanger lives, they also drop a great deal of water on the droughty southeast and contribute to much of the ocean mixing in the area. It's a trade off, for sure. Me? I'm still going with humans living in houses more suited to the environments they stand on.  There are architectural set ups which minimize damage even in the worst category 5s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/09/AR2009080902294.html the solution to this, is of course, immigration.

[Kai]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/10/national/a022331D38.DTL Animals treated with stem cells.

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/08/07/a-pacific-island-chain-with-real-energy-incentive/ Tuvalu to go 100% renewable by 2020.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/807/2 Wales finally shown to be harmed by surface sonar from Navy ships. Took them long enough.

[Triple Zero]

Kai, just wanted to say, I enjoy your new "format" for this thread, a summary in your own words, plus a littlebit of opinion.