Houseplants Make Air Healthier

Houseplants were placed into experimental chambers in a greenhouse equipped with a charcoal filtration air supply system to measure ozone depletion rates. Credit: Dennis Decoteau.

From Live Science:

Houseplants can neutralize harmful ozone, making indoor air cleaner, according to a new study.

Ozone, which is the main component of smog, forms when high-energy light, such as the ultraviolet light from the sun, breaks oxygen bonds, ultimately resulting in O3, three atoms of oxygen joining together. When formed higher up in the atmosphere, the ozone layer protects us from harmful UV rays. Ground-level ozone is not so pleasant.

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Ancient 'Smell Of Death' Revealed

Dying stinks, even for woodlice

From The BBC:

When animals die, their corpses exude a particular "stench of death" which repels their living relatives, scientists have discovered.

Corpses of animals as distantly related as insects and crustaceans all produce the same stench, caused by a blend of simple fatty acids.

The smell helps living animals avoid others that have succumbed to disease or places where predators lurk.

This 'death recognition system' likely evolved over 400 million years ago.

The discovery was made by a team of researchers based at McMaster University, near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and is published in the journal Evolutionary Biology.

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The Real Sea Monsters: On the Hunt for Rogue Waves

BIG, BAD WAVE: A monster rogue wave approaches a merchant ship in the Bay of Biscay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by the coasts of northwestern Spain and southwestern France. NOAA'S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COLLECTION

From Scientific American:

Scientists hope a better understanding of when, where and how mammoth oceanic waves form can someday help ships steer clear of danger.

A near-vertical wall of water in what had been an otherwise placid sea shocked all on board the ocean liner Teutonic—including the crew—on that Sunday in February, more than a century ago.

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Big Artistic Performance To Be Set In Space

From Space.com:

The first ever widely acknowledged artistic performance from space will be broadcast from the International Space Station on Oct. 9.

Orchestrated by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who is set to launch to the station as a space tourist Sept. 30, the event will feature artists performing from 14 cities around the world, as well as Laliberte broadcasting from space.

Laliberte described the event, called "Moving Stars and Earth for Water," as a "poetic social mission" to communicate the importance water has for the planet and its people.

Scientists have warned that water shortages rank with energy and food issues around the globe as top governmental issues now and in the future.

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A Skull That Rewrites The History Of Man

One of the skulls discovered in Georgia, which are believed to date back 1.8 million years

From The Independent:

It has long been agreed that Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution. Then these bones were found in Georgia...

The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man.

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Humans Aren’t Going to Mars — or Anywhere Else — Without More Money

From Wired Science:

American human space exploration is impossible with NASA’s current budget.

The committee tasked with examining NASA’s role in human space flight delivered that finding today while offering a mix of relatively exciting options if the agency can secure an extra $3 billion per year.

The report, posted to the Office of Science and Technology Policy website, does not chart any new territory, but it’s unusually clear about the scale and nature of NASA’s problems. The committee said what needed to be said in the interest of a reality-based space program.

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Quietest Room In The World Opens Its Doors

Dr David Carberry prepares an experiment in the new Bristol University building which is the 'quietest' in the world Photo: SWNS

From The Telegraph:

The world's 'quietest' room opened its doors for the study of nanotechnology in Bristol.

The ''ultra-low vibration suite'', which cost £11million, allows scientists to manipulate atoms and molecules without the interference of environmental vibrations interrupting their work.

There is virtually no air movement inside the cutting edge laboratory, which is anchored to the rock foundation in the basement of the Nanoscience and Quantum Information Centre in Bristol.

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Cargo Spaceship Meets The Catcher In The Sky

Artist's impression of HTV approaching ISS (Image:JAXA)

From The New Scientist:

If the first launch of Japan's new heavy-lifting rocket passes without incident this month, the residents of the International Space Station will soon be taking delivery of food, water, some spanking new laptops, a robot arm and a couple of Earth-observing experiments. Business as usual, you might think, except that the way this particular cargo gets to its destination is subtly different to its predecessors.

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"Quantum Quest" Brings Cassini to the Big Screen (Starring William Shatner as Every Star in the Universe)

From Popular Science:

Harry Kloor may be the world’s most well-rounded nerd. He is the only person to have earned doctorates in physics and chemistry simultaneously, and he has penned episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. And when NASA asked him for help in improving its image with young people, he drew on both of those experiences. The best way to get kids enthused about outer space, Kloor figured, was to hide their medicine in a bucket of popcorn. Next February, Quantum Quest, a star-studded CGI space adventure that pairs animated protons with real footage from NASA spacecraft, hits theaters. “Many of NASA’s scientists were inspired by Star Trek and Star Wars,” he says. “I want to inspire that kind of passion.” We caught up with Kloor to find out why kids will go nuts for quarks.

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That Late-Night Snack: Worse Than You Think

Eating at irregular times -- the equivalent of the middle of the night for humans, when the body wants to sleep -- influences weight gain, a new study has found. (Credit: iStockphoto/Curt Pickens)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2009) — Eat less, exercise more. Now there is new evidence to support adding another "must" to the weight-loss mantra: eat at the right time of day.

A Northwestern University study has found that eating at irregular times -- the equivalent of the middle of the night for humans, when the body wants to sleep -- influences weight gain. The regulation of energy by the body's circadian rhythms may play a significant role. The study is the first causal evidence linking meal timing and increased weight gain.

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Why 09/09/09 Is So Special

In some cultures, the number 9 is special and can carry good or bad omens. These characters from the movie "9," which opens on 09/09/09, flee for their lives from the Fabrication Machine. Credit: Focus Features

From Live Science:

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

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Laser Cooling May Create "Exotic" States of Matter

An infrared picture shows the change in temperature for laser-cooled gas (blue) and a surrounding metal chamber (red and yellow). After a 30-second pulse from a special type of laser beam, the gas cooled by several degrees compared to its container. Picture courtesy Martin Weitz

From National Geographic:

Laser beams are best known as weapons in science fiction and as heating and cutting tools in science fact. But a new study has flip-flopped conventional physics to show lasers in a whole new light.

In a new technique, Martin Weitz and Ulrich Vogl of the University of Bonn in Germany used a laser to bring the temperature of dense rubidium gas far below the normal point at which the gas becomes a solid.

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Underwater Laser Pops In Navy Ops

From The BBC:

US military researchers are developing a method for communication that uses lasers to make sound underwater.

The approach focuses laser light to produce bubbles of steam that pop and create tiny, 220-decibel explosions.

Controlling the rate of these explosions could provide a means of communication or even acoustic imaging.

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My Comment: The geek in me loves reading reports like this one.

The House That Twitters

IBM head of invention Andy Stanford-Clark at his home on the Isle of Wight which he has turned into a hi-tech house using Twitter

From The Telegraph:

A Tudor cottage has been converted into one of the most hi-tech homes in the world after its owner connected it to the internet messaging service Twitter.

Now the house tells its owner when his dinner is ready, if someone is at the door or when a mouse has been caught in a trap.

Dr Andy Stanford-Clark has fitted the grade 1 listed cottage with hundreds of sensors, allowing everything from energy usage to the burglar alarm to be relayed by the blogging website.

Read more ....

Ancient Skeletons Discovered In Georgia Threaten To Overturn The Theory Of Human Evolution

Astonishing discovery: Archaeologists have unearthed six ancient skeletons dating back 1.8 million years in the hills of Georgia

From The Daily Mail:

For generations, scientists have believed Africa was the cradle of mankind.

Now an astonishing discovery suggests the human race may have spent a 'gap year' in Eurasia.

Archaeologists have unearthed six ancient skeletons dating back 1.8 million years in the hills of Georgia which threaten to overturn the theory of human evolution.

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Clues To Blast-Related Brain Injury

Photo: Brain blast: Scientists found that people who suffered concussions as the result of a blast had a more diffuse pattern of brain injury (shown in red) than those whose concussions resulted from a blow to the head or an acceleration injury.
Credit: David Moore et al.

From Technology Review:

New research shows that explosions trigger unique damage to brain tissue.

The blasts caused by improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan appear to inflict a fundamentally different type of brain damage than do more traditional sources of concussions, such as blunt trauma. The findings point toward new approaches to diagnosing and monitoring these injuries, which have been a huge concern to the military in recent years. The research also begins to resolve a controversy in brain-injury research--whether soldiers who are near an explosion but don't get hit in the head can still suffer a unique type of brain damage.

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My Comment: If this report is true, it means that thousands of Iraqi/Afghan veterans may have experienced brain trauma that were never diagnosed .... or .... for those who were diagnosed, it may mean years of treatment and care that was never contemplated just a few years back. This is a very sobering report, and will be followed up by this blog in the future.

The Complicated World of Ancient Humans

Paved entrance to the Tayinat Temple in Turkey, a hotbed of trade in the Iron Age.

From Discover Magazine:

Recent digs show long-distance trade and complex social structures were around for longer than archaeologists thought.

For civilizations in Europe and the Near East, the Bronze and Iron Ages—when metalworking was first developed—have been viewed as times when simple societies struggled through technological upheaval, famine, and sickness. But new findings are revealing surprising social and cultural complexity.

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Earth-Sized Planets Are Just Right For Life

Auroras, like this one seen from Alaska, may be a sign that a planet can support life (Image: Joshua Strang, United States Air Force / Wikimedia Commons)

From New Scientist:

THE discovery of extrasolar super-Earths - rocky planets about five to ten times the mass of Earth - has raised hopes that some may harbour life. Perhaps it's a vain hope though, since it now seems that Earth is just the right size to sustain life.

Life is comfortable on Earth in part because of its relatively stable climate and its magnetic field, which deflects cosmic radiation capable of damaging organic molecules as well as producing amazing auroras (see right).

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RoboBath: NASA Studies The Cleanest Robot in the World

Mars Mountaineer

+ Arctic Outdoor Lab: Scientists use Norway’s far northern Svalbard islands to test gear-sterilization techniques and space-bound rovers such as this prototype.

+ Social Climber: Cliffbot is part of a three-rover team. Two other robots are tethered to the machine to let it access terrain as steep as 85 degrees.

+ Bot Specs: The rover is the size of a toy wagon, weighs nearly 18 pounds and creeps at 6 inches a second on level ground.

From Popular Mechanics:

In the icy north, scientists learn to sanitize their tools before sending out rovers to search for life on other planets.

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Asus's New E-Reader Looks More Like a Real, Live Book

Asus Eee Reader

From Popular Science:

The company's forthcoming reader sports a dual-screen, two-page layout and (yes) color.

For a lot of people, e-book readers are a long game of "I'll buy it when..." For some, the rest of that sentence is "it has a color screen," and for others it's "it's cheaper." Asus's upcoming Eee Reader (due by the end of this year) delivers on both counts. Oh, and it will have two screens, too.

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Half Of Fish Consumed Globally Is Now Raised On Farms, Study Finds

These are moi, or Pacific threadfin, being sorted for market after harvest from an offshore aquaculture cage in Hawaii. (Credit: NOAA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2009) — Aquaculture, once a fledgling industry, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new report by an international team of researchers. And while the industry is more efficient than ever, it is also putting a significant strain on marine resources by consuming large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea, the authors conclude. Their findings are published in the Sept. 7 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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How Much Spit Does A Person Produce?

From Live Science:

Our salivary glands, which are located on the inside of each cheek, at the bottom of the mouth and under the jaw at the front of the mouth, churn out about two to four pints (one to two liters) of spit every day.

The mere mention or aroma hint of chocolate chip cookies can make for a mouth full of drool. That's a good thing. The clear substance, made up mostly of water, mixes in with food to help even the driest snack slide with ease down into your stomach. Before those morsels hit the belly, special enzymes in saliva start to break down that food into its simpler components.

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Fatal Fungus Killing Bats At Alarming Rate

Watch CBS Videos Online

From CBS:

Biologist Explains How a Dying Bat Population Results in Damage to Forests and Farms.

CBS) The race is on throughout the northeast. From tagging bats with tiny transmitters to infrared flight analysis and blood testing of their immune systems, researchers are trying to solve one of the most devastating mysteries in the natural world: The huge and rapid die off of the species named little brown bats.

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Fragment From World's Oldest Bible Found Hidden In Egyptian Monastery

A page from the earliest surviving Bible, of which another fragment has been discovered in Egypt. PA


From The Independent:

Academic stumbles upon previously unseen section of Codex Sinaiticus dating back to 4th century.

A British-based academic has uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest Bible hiding underneath the binding of an 18th-century book.

Nikolas Sarris spotted a previously unseen section of the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates from about AD350, as he was trawling through photographs of manuscripts in the library of St Catherine's Monastery in Egypt.

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My Comment: Bookyards section on Christianity is here, and on the Bible it is here.

Virus Linked To Prostate Tumours

From The BBC:

Scientists have produced compelling evidence that a virus known to cause cancer in animals is linked to prostate cancer in humans.

The researchers from the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools found the virus in 27% of the 200 cancerous prostates they looked at.

They say it was associated with more aggressive tumours and found in only 6% of non-cancerous prostates.

The finding raises the prospect of one day producing a vaccine.

Previous research has linked XMRV (Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus) to prostate cancer but not in such an aggressive way.

Read more ....

Chinese Scientists 'Filmed UFO For 40 Minutes'

From The Telegraph:

The UFO world is alive with speculation that China is about to reveal details of startling and detailed footage of an unidentified flying object taken during the solar eclipse on July 22.

Scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing are reported to have confirmed that they filmed a UFO during the eclipse for 40 minutes. They say that they will spend the next 12 months studying the footage before drawing any conclusions.

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More Rubbish From 60 Minutes Tonight. “The Age Of Megafires”

From Watts Up With That:

Right on cue, CBS news 60 minutes is expected link the recent California fires to “global warming”. Never mind that the fire was caused by arson, or that the area hadn’t burned in 40-60 years, leading up to a collection of dry dead underbrush which is part of the natural fire cycle. Never mind that La Nina made for a dry couple of years exacerbating the problem. Never mind that we get fires in California about this time every year. No, its the “Age of Megafires”:

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Windmills Are Killing Our Birds -- A Commentary

From Wall Street Journal:

One standard for oil companies, another for green energy sources.

On Aug. 13, ExxonMobil pleaded guilty in federal court to killing 85 birds that had come into contact with crude oil or other pollutants in uncovered tanks or waste-water facilities on its properties. The birds were protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which dates back to 1918. The company agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and fees.

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Green Machine

Fuel for thought: The car is powered by vegetables such as potatoes and carrots

Green Machine: The 135mph Racing Car Built Out Of Recyclables And Powered By Vegetables And Chocolate -- The Daily Mail

A racing car built from vegetables and powered by chocolate is to make its track debut next month, scientists have announced.

The £500,000 WorldFirst - described as the greenest car of its kind in the world - is expected to reach a top speed of 135mph when it hits the track at Brands Hatch.

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Saddle Up For The U.S. Army's Robotics Rodeo

Robot Gunslinger: Steady there, cowboy Mark Rutherford/CNET

From Popular Science:

The Army invites robotic handlers to show off their wares.

At the first Robotics Rodeo, hosted this week by the U.S. Army and the Fort Hood III Corps in Texas, war machines replaced bulls and horses. Soldiers and civilian contractors used the opportunity, starting on Wednesday, to inspect a lineup of robots that could potentially find a place on the battlefield.

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Hydrogen Storage Gets New Hope

Ammonia borane (AB) is a potential hydrogen releasing fuel. In this Los Alamos National Laboratory graphic, the AB would be used on-board the vehicle to run a fuel cell. Once hydrogen is released, the AB could then be regenerated and reused. In the scheme shown, the recycle of dehydrogenated fuel back into AB would take place off-board the vehicle. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2009) — A new method for “recycling” hydrogen-containing fuel materials could open the door to economically viable hydrogen-based vehicles.

In an article appearing in Angewandte Chemie, Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Alabama researchers working within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence describe a significant advance in hydrogen storage science.

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Hard Labor: How 10 Animals Struggle to Survive

From Live Science:

Many Americans think of Labor Day as merely the end of summer and part of a welcome three-day weekend. Its origin, however, is in celebrating the labor movement and workers' rights. So enjoy the break (if you get one in this modern 24/7 world), but if you think you have it tough, consider the hard labor put in by these 10 creatures, all just to survive. The list is courtesy the National Wildlife Federation.

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Shuttle Crew In Home Stretch Of Station Resupply

Astronauts Nicole Stott and Danny Olivas retrieve experiments from the Columbus module during a spacewalk last Tuesday. (Credit: NASA)

From CNET:

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Sailing into the home stretch of a busy space station resupply mission, the shuttle Discovery astronauts worked Sunday to wrap up equipment and supply transfers before taking a half day off to relax and enjoy the view.

Overnight, engineers successfully tested a new motor-driven bolt in the berthing mechanism holding the shuttle-delivered Leonardo cargo module in place on the Earth-facing port of the lab's Harmony module.

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Google To Remove European Titles From US E-Book Settlement

From The Wall Street Journal:

BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--Online search giant Google Inc. (GOOG) Monday said it will remove all European books that are still commercially available from a $125 million U.S. settlement with publishers to scan orphaned and out-of-print books in the U.S. and sell them online.

The concessions come given the concerns of European authors and publishers, who don't want the search engine to scan books by European authors, which are still protected by copyrights, without asking their permission.

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Islamic Search Engine ImHalal Filters Out Potentially Sinful Material

The ImHalal search engine warns users of potentially illicit words and material on the internet.

From Times Online:

Muslims will be able to surf the internet without the fear of accidentally encountering sinful material after a Dutch company launched the world’s first Islamic search engine.

The ImHalal service works like any other search facility until potentially illicit words are entered, when it rates the search from one to three on its risk of generating “haram” or forbidden material.

Reza Sardeha, founder of AZS Media Group which runs the search engine, said: “The idea grew up when some friends of mine complained that when they searched on Google or Yahoo once in a while they bumped into sexually explicit content.”

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Is There a Climate-Change Tipping Point?

NASA / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

Global warming — the very term sounds gentle, like a bath that grows pleasantly hotter under the tap. Many people might assume that's how climate change works too, the globe gradually increasing in temperature until we decide to stop it by cutting our carbon emissions. It's a comforting notion, one that gives us time to gauge the steady impact of warming before taking action.

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Breakthrough In Fight Against Diabetes

From The Telegraph:

A gene that controls the way the body responds to the hormone insulin has been identified, marking a breakthrough in the fight against diabetes.

Scientists believe a variation in the gene's DNA promotes insulin resistance, the primary cause of type 2 diabetes. The disease is the most common form of diabetes, affecting around two million people in the UK.

The discovery could lead to new drug treatments that target the genetic fault and prevent the body failing to respond to insulin.

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Short-Haired Bumblebee To Be Repopulated In UK

A queen short-haired bumblebee, one of a species which died out in the UK, but survived in New Zealand after being shipped there more than 100 years ago, is to be reintroduced in the UK. Photograph: Bumblebee Conservation Trust/Dave Goulson

From The Guardian:

Descendants of the lost UK bumblebee will be brought from New Zealand to Dungeness in what could be a landmark repopulation programme.

British conservationists have drawn up plans to repopulate the countryside with a species of bumblebee that was declared extinct here nearly a decade ago.

The short-haired bumblebee officially died out in the UK in 2000, but descendents of the doomed community live on in small pockets of New Zealand, where they were taken to pollinate red clover in the late 19th century.

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Lost In Space: Astronomy Photographers Capture Cosmic Masterpieces For Competition

The horsehead nebula in Orion by Martin Pugh from the UK

From The Daily Mail:

The dramatic rearing horsehead nebula and mysterious glowing Bow of Orion are just two of the unforgettable images that have been entered into the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2009 competition.

More than 500 entries from around the world - from dedicated amateurs as well as true beginners - have been sent in, including some taken with mobile phones.

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Nano Printing Goes Large

Photo: Nano press: This 10-by-30-centimeter plastic sheet (top) has been patterned with a series of nanoscale polymer lines using roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography (bottom). The film is iridescent because of the way its nanoscale features scatter light. Credit: ACS Nano

From Technology Review:

A rolling nanoimprint lithography stamp could be used to print components for displays and solar cells.

A printing technique that could stamp out features just tens of nanometers across at industrial scale is finally moving out of the lab. The new roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography system could be used to cheaply and efficiently churn out nano-patterned optical films to improve the performance of displays and solar cells.

Nanoimprint lithography uses mechanical force to press out a nanoscale pattern and can make much smaller features than optical lithography, which is reaching its physical limits. The technique was developed as a tool for miniaturizing integrated circuits, and a handful of companies, including Molecular Imprints of Austin, TX, are still developing it for this application.

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ISS's New Reactor Uses Sound Waves To Form Materials Attainable Only In Space

Space-DRUMS: The Space-DRUMS chamber makes use of 20 sound beams to produce materials free of container contamination. Semiconductors are especially an area of interest for the souped-up pressure cooker. NASA

From Popular Science:

This dodecahedron-shaped device currently on board the International Space Station may resemble a landmine, but in fact it serves quite an opposite purpose: within, scientist Jacques Guigne hopes to use sound waves to cleanly manipulate a brew of ingredients into custom materials that can only be made in the unique conditions of space.

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Economists Measure GDP Growth From Outer Space

Increased nighttime lighting indicates economic growth in Poland and Eastern Europe between 1992 (left, above) and 2002. Poland is in the top left quarter of each image. (Credit: NOAA and USAF Weather Agency)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2009) — Outer space offers a new perspective for measuring economic growth, according to new research by three Brown University economists. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, J. Vernon Henderson, Adam Storeygard, and David N. Weil suggest a new framework for estimating a country or region’s gross domestic product (GDP) by using satellite images of the area’s nighttime lights.

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Powerful Ideas: Cars Could Run on Watermelons

From Live Science:

Watermelon juice could become the newest renewable energy source for vehicles, scientists now suggest.

Each year, about 1 out of 5 watermelons are left behind in fields because they are misshapen or because of cosmetic blemishes. In the 2007 growing season, this amounted to roughly 360,000 metric tons of lost melons in the United States alone.

Read more ....

Is The Near-Earth Space Frontier Closed?

The development of the ICBM, and the satellite systems linked to these missiles, created a synergistic relationship that effectively settled the near-Earth space frontier. (credit: US Air Force)

From Space Review:

How the ICBM opened, developed, and closed its own frontier.

If you challenged people in the civilian space community to identify a set of space systems that repaid their initial investment in proportion to their cost, most would be hard pressed to identify more than one or two nonmilitary systems. That set of applications would unlikely be a compelling enough reason to pour the resources that would be needed to open the space frontier from scratch.

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Plasmobot: The Slime Mould Robot

Single-celled slime moulds could be programmed as robots (Image: Visuals Unlimited / Corbis)

From New Scientist:

THOUGH not famed for their intellect, single-celled organisms have already demonstrated a surprising degree of intelligence. Now a team at the University of the West of England (UWE) has secured £228,000 in funding to turn these organisms into engineering robots.

Read more ....

Finding A Scapegoat When Epidemics Strike

DEMONIZED Above, a detail from the Friese Chronicles showing the 1349 massacre of Erfurt Jews in Germany, who were blamed for the Black Death. Yeshiva University Museum

From The New York Times:

Whose fault was the Black Death?

In medieval Europe, Jews were blamed so often, and so viciously, that it is surprising it was not called the Jewish Death. During the pandemic’s peak in Europe, from 1348 to 1351, more than 200 Jewish communities were wiped out, their inhabitants accused of spreading contagion or poisoning wells.

The swine flu outbreak of 2009 has been nowhere near as virulent, and neither has the reaction. But, as in pandemics throughout history, someone got the blame — at first Mexico, with attacks on Mexicans in other countries and calls from American politicians to close the border.

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The Teen Brain: The More Mature,The More Reckless

Michael Blann / Getty

From Time Magazine:

Teenagers are a famously reckless species. They floor the gas and experiment with drugs and play with guns; according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures, more than 16,000 young people die each year from unintentional injuries. The most common-sense explanation for teens' carelessness is that their brains just aren't developed enough to know better. But new research suggests that in the case of some teens, the culprit is just the opposite: the brain matures not too slowly but, perhaps, too quickly.

Read more ....

Tigers Are 'Brainier' Than Lions

Photo: Getty

From The Telegraph:

As the King of the Jungle, the lion may have the brawn, but it is the tiger that has the brains, claim scientists.

Researchers have discovered that the tiger has a far bigger brain than its big cat rival, even though it is often seen as lower down the food chain.

A team of zoologists at Oxford University compared the brain cavity in the skulls of both animals and found tigers are 16 per cent bigger than lions, leopards and jaguars.

In evolutionary terms, brain size has usually been linked to intelligence.

Read more ....

Giant Statues Give Up Hat Mystery

The ancient statues have giant red hats

From BBC:

Archaeologists have solved an ancient mystery surrounding the famous Easter Island statues.

At 2,500 miles off the coast of Chile, the island is the world's most remote place inhabited by people.

Up to one thousand years ago, the islanders started putting giant red hats on the statues.

The research team, from the University of Manchester and University College London, think the hats were rolled down from an ancient volcano.

Read more ....

Lost World Of Fanged Frogs And Giant Rats Discovered In Papua New Guinea

The Bosavi Woolly Rat had no fear of humans when it was discovered.
Photograph: Jonny Keeling/BBC

From The Guardian:

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.

A team of scientists from Britain, America, Hawaii and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

Read more ....

After Years Of Search, Breakthrough Discoveries Of Alzheimer's Genes

Karen Kasmauski / Science Faction / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

Fifteen years since the last discovery of its kind, scientists have finally identified a new set of genes that may contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

The three new genes, known as clusterin, complement receptor 1 (CR1) and PICALM, were uncovered by two separate research groups, one in Wales and one in France, who linked the genes to the most common form of the memory disorder, late-onset Alzheimer's — the type that affects patients in their 60s or later and accounts for about 90% of all Alzheimer's cases. The only other gene connected with the condition, apolipoprotein E (ApoE), was identified in 1993; since, researchers have tirelessly hunted for other key genes, knowing that 60% to 80% of the progressive, incurable disease is genetically based.

Read more ....

Researchers Identify Critical Gene For Brain Development, Mental Retardation

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2009) — In laying down the neural circuitry of the developing brain, billions of neurons must first migrate to their correct destinations and then form complex synaptic connections with their new neighbors.

When the process goes awry, neurodevelopmental disorders such as mental retardation, dyslexia or autism may result. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have now discovered that establishing the neural wiring necessary to function normally depends on the ability of neurons to make finger-like projections of their membrane called filopodia.

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5 Future Robotic Expeditions and What They Could Reveal

Image: ESA/AOES Medialab

From Scientific American:

Some are already on their way and some are still in the works, but here is what we may see from unmanned exploration of space in the coming years.

Fifty years ago this month, the Soviet Union scored a coup in the space race with a probe called Luna 2. The spacecraft, which resembled a squat, souped-up version of its cousin Sputnik, was launched on September 12, 1959, and two days later reached the lunar surface. By impacting the moon, Luna 2 became the first man-made object to land on a celestial body other than Earth.

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