"Noah's Flood" Not Rooted In Reality, After All?

Some believe that Noah's Ark came to rest on Turkey's Mount Ararat, above. But the ancient flood that some scientists think gave rise to the Noah story may not have been quite so biblical in proportion, a January 2009 study says. Photograph by Melik Baghdasaryan/AP/Photolur

From National Geographic:

The ancient flood that some scientists think gave rise to the Noah story may not have been quite so biblical in proportion, a new study says.

Researchers generally agree that, during a warming period about 9,400 years ago, an onrush of seawater from the Mediterranean spurred a connection with the Black Sea, then a largely freshwater lake. That flood turned the lake into a rapidly rising sea.

A previous theory said the Black Sea rose up to 195 feet (60 meters), possibly burying villages and spawning the tale of Noah's flood and other inundation folklore.

But the new study—largely focused on relatively undisturbed underwater fossils—suggests a rise of no more than 30 feet (10 meters).

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Neanderthal Genome To Be Unveiled

Image: Neanderthals are the closest hominid relatives of modern humans. The two species co-existed in Europe and western Asia as late as 30,000 years ago. (American Museum of Natural History). (Image from Berkley Lab)

From Nature:

Draft sequence opens window on human relatives.

The entire genome of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal has been sequenced by a team of scientists in Germany. The group is already extracting DNA from other ancient Neanderthal bones and hopes that the genomes will allow an unprecedented comparison between modern humans and their closest evolutionary relative.

The three-year project, which cost about €5 million (US$6.4 million), was carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Project leader Svante Pääbo will announce the results of the preliminary genomic analysis at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois, which starts on 12 February.

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Are We Bringing Our Germs to Mars?

From Time Magazine:

Star Trek fans know it as the Prime Directive: that there should be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations. (Given the frequency with which captains Kirk, Picard, et. al., violate it, however, the Prime Directive seems more like a Prime Suggestion.) Since human beings have yet to explore very far beyond Earth, pondering an interplanetary noninterference policy of our own may seem a little premature — at least until we've mastered warp drives and phasers.

But in fact, such a directive already exists in some form — the international Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which governs the legal framework for activities in space. Best known for banning governments from putting nuclear weapons into orbit, the treaty also requires space-faring nations to avoid "harmful contamination" of other worlds while exploring the solar system. Human beings have yet to set foot on other planets, so the risk today comes from bacteria that can hitch a ride on unmanned spacecraft like NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, which arrived on the red planet's surface last May.

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Plumbing The Planet: The 5 Biggest Projects Taking On The World's Water Supply

An Israeli employee inspects membranes that extract salt from the water at Ashkelon's seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant, south of Tel Aviv. Ashkelon's desalination plant is one the biggest in the world. (Photograph by David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images)

From Popular Mechanics:

As nations and regions all over the globe face too much polluted water and too little fresh water, they are turning to some of the largest, most technologically complex projects the world has ever seen. Here, we have compiled five of the biggest and most ambitious. But are they big enough to keep the taps flowing?

The dire statistics are well-known, but deserve repeating: One in six people in the world live without regular access to clean water, according to the United Nations, and one in three lacks access to decent sanitation. Even countries with good water supplies—like the U.S.—will experience trouble sustaining them in the near future, as panelists discussed at the water roundtable PM hosted last fall.

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TED: Change The World With $100,000

From CBS News:

CBS Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is reporting from the TED conference in Long Beach, Calif.

The concept is simple; it's the execution that requires global collaboration and commitment. Not to mention some serious cash. Along those lines, TED prizes are an award of $100,000 given to a select group of recipients looking to change the world with one idea or "wish." They can use the money as they choose, and at a ceremony here Thursday night the three winners expressed their hopes for the future.

Jill Tarter, founder of SETI or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life, encouraged TED attendees and others to imagine ways that every "earthling" could contribute to a growing database of life beyond our planet or our "cosmic company." In real terms, Tarter wants kids to be more involved in the experience of searching or studying the universe, and improve the way information from space is stored and shared with astronomers. Her announcement was preceded by a taped introduction from Sir Richard Branson, who is actively pursuing commercial space travel through his Virgin Galactic project.

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Top 5 Most Extreme Exoplanets

From Wired Science:

Searching for planets beyond our solar system is a bit like playing Goldilocks — we keep looking for that one that will be just right to host life. While astronomers haven't found a perfect fit yet, they have found plenty that are too big, too hot, too cold, too dense, too close to their star, or too distant.

The first exoplanet discovery was in 1988, though it was controversial at the time and wasn't officially confirmed until 2003. Over the years, more than 330 extrasolar planets have been found, nearly all of them using indirect methods such as detecting the wobble of a star due to the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet or the slight dimming of the star's light as a planet passes in front of it.

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Welcome To Cyber-London (But You Can Only Visit The Posh Bits)

The virtual recreation of London includes Big Ben
though curiously not the Houses of Parliament

From The Daily Mail:

A virtual recreation of London is attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every day.

An online version of the capital, complete with Big Ben and Marble Arch, is featured on the 3D virtual world website Second Life.

The online city boasts five areas of London - Mayfair, Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster and Hyde Park. All of which are known for the high price of their property and exclusive eateries.

Users who sign up free of charge can create an avatar of themselves, and can walk or fly around while interacting with other users via text or speech.

From today, it will be available from the home page on Second Life, which was set up in 2003 and now has two million avatars.

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Key Insights Into How New Species Emerge

A female apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, implants an egg into an apple. Wasps that attack the flies and eat their larvae appear to be changing on a genetic level in the same way that the flies themselves appear to be changing genetically. (Credit: Rob Oakleaf)

From Science Digest:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009) — A team of researchers are reporting the ongoing emergence of a new species of fruit fly--and the sequential development of a new species of wasp--in the February 6 issue of the journal Science.

Jeff Feder, a University of Notre Dame biologist, and his colleagues say the introduction of apples to America almost 400 years ago ultimately may have changed the behavior of a fruit fly, leading to its modification and the subsequent modification of a parasitic wasp that feeds on it.

The result is a chain reaction of biodiversity where the modification of one species triggers the sequential modification of a second, dependent species.

"It's a nice demonstration of how the initial speciation of one organism opens up an opportunity for another species in the ecosystem to speciate in kind," said Feder. "Biodiversity in essence is the source for new biodiversity."

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Man Runs 7 Marathons In 5 Days

Photo: Richard Donovan in action in the Himalayan 100 mile race. From RTE.

From Live Science:

Richard Donovan, a 42-year-old from Ireland, is as close to being the real Forrest Gump as anyone.

Running to raise money for a charity called Goal, which works to ease suffering in Darfur, Donovan ran seven marathons on seven continents. If you know your continents, you know that's a challenge. More: He did it in 5 days.

The order of Donovan's insanity, which began Jan. 31:

* Antarctica
* Cape Town, South Africa
* Dubai
* London
* Toronto
* Santiago, Chile
* Sydney, Australia

"What he did was staggering, quite remarkable," John O'Shea, the charity's founder and chief executive, told the news agency AFP.

To prove he's human, Donovan took airline flights between destinations. To keep it real, he flew coach.

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My Comment: As someone who has run a few marathons in his life .... I am impressed.

Reading This Will Change Your Brain

Jeff Sherman / Taxi-Getty Images

From Newsweek:

A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution?

Is technology changing our brains? A new study by UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small adds to a growing body of research that says it is. And according to Small's new book, "iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. "Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically," he writes. "As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills."

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How You Can Tell A Person's Class: The Wealthy Fidget, Yawn And Generally Appear Rude, Say Researchers

Photo: Body language: Those from wealthier backgrounds tend to appear more distracted than their less well off counterparts

From The Daily Mail:

Fidgeting, yawning and doodling have long been equated with boredom.

But if the person you're speaking to isn't paying attention, they may be rich rather than rude, a study has revealed.

It found that posh people fidget more - making it possible to tell a person's social class by their body language.

Researchers said those born into privilege may feel less of a need to make a good impression and so are more inclined to fidget when talking to other people.

In contrast, their poorer counterparts are anxious to make a good impression and so are more attentive.

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Science Found Wanting In U.S. Crime Labs

Robert Stinson, convicted of murder in 1984, was freed from a Wisconsin prison last month after tests found that bite-mark and DNA analysis did not match evidence from the crime scene. (Andy Manis/Associated Press)

From International Herald Tribune:

Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the nation's pre-eminent scientific research group.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences is to be released this month. People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting.

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Britannica 2.0 Shows Wikipedia How It's Done

From Times Online:

The 240-year-old Encyclopaedia Britannica has taken a giant leap into the world of Web 2.0 with the launch of a new online version where users can contribute and edit content.

In a move that takes it head to head with Wikipedia, new features on the Britannica site will allow users to edit and contribute articles in return for the glory of having their name attached to the submission.

However, “voyeuristic” Wikipedia fans ought not to get too excited by the changes as all submissions will undergo a strict vetting process and may or may not make the cut, according to Britannica 's president, Jorge Cauz.

“We’re not trying to be a wiki - that’s the last thing we want to be,” Mr Cauz told The Times.

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East Asia Builds World's Largest Radio Telescope Network

Credit: Landscape photo of the Very Large Array antenna with the moon. Credit: NRAO

From China View:

SHANGHAI, Feb.1 (Xinhua) -- East Asian astronomers are building the world's largest radio telescope array to see the deep into the galaxy and black holes and more accurately determine the orbits of lunar probes such as China's Chang'e-1.

The array, called the East Asia Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) consortium, consists of 19 radio telescopes from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) that cover an area with a diameter of 6,000 kilometers from northern Japan's Hokkaido to western China's Kunming and Urumqi.

The VLBI technology is widely used in radio astronomy. It combines the observations simultaneously made by several telescopes to expand the diameter and increase magnification.

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Google Sets up Online Broadband Testing Lab

Google Inc. and two nonprofit partners, on Wednesday, launched a Web site that lets consumers test their Internet connections to reveal possible interference and traffic management by service providers. (AP Photo)

From ABC News:

Google Inc. and two nonprofit partners Wednesday launched a Web site that lets consumers test their Internet connections to reveal possible interference and traffic management by service providers.

The site, Measurement Lab, addresses a need among academics who want to gather data on how Internet connections work in practice. While the workings of the core Internet "highways" are well known and standardized, it's difficult to find out what happens on the network of an Internet service provider, between the "highway" and the customer's home.

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US Wind Power Grew By 50% In 2008 As China's Doubled

Vail Resorts said Tuesday that it would buy credits for wind power like that generated by the turbines at the Gray County Wind Farm in Kansas. Orlin Wagner/Associated Press (New York Times)

From Ars Technica:

The Global Wind Energy Council, an industry group, has totaled the past year's growth in generating capacity, and found that wind had a very good year, with US wind power having its highest annual growth ever, and China doubling its installed capacity.

Many renewable energy technologies, most notably photovoltaic, are struggling to reach what's called "grid parity," where the cost of the power they generate matches that of fossil fuel generation. One technology that's largely there is wind, as maturing turbine technology and economies of scale have made the economics of wind power quite competitive. Those economics can clearly be seen in the latest figures on the growth of the wind industry, which cover 2008. Among the milestones: wind was the largest component of Europe's growth in electric generating capacity, the US became the world's top wind energy producer, and China doubled its installed capacity in just a year—for the fourth year running.

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Holographic Universe: Discovery Could Herald New Era In Fundamental Physics

View through one of the tubes of GEO600.
(Credit: Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics/Leibniz Universität Hannover)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2009) — Cardiff University researchers, who are part of a British-German team searching the depths of space to study gravitational waves, may have stumbled on one of the most important discoveries in physics, according to an American physicist.

Craig Hogan, a physicist at Fermilab Centre for Particle Astrophysics in Illinois is convinced that he has found proof in the data of the gravitational wave detector GEO600 of a holographic Universe – and that his ideas could explain mysterious noise in the detector data that has not been explained so far.

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Oldest Fossil Evidence for Animals Found

Hymeniacidon sp. Photograph: Jane Fromont, WA Museum

From Live Science:

The oldest fossilized evidence of animals has been unearthed in Oman and reveals that tiny sea sponges were abundant 635 million years ago, long before most of the planet's other major animal groups evolved, according to a new analysis.

This early life hardly looked like us, but some of the so-called demosponges can be sizable today. Demosponges still make up 90 percent of all sponges on Earth and 100 percent of Earth's largest sponges, including barrel sponges, which can be larger than an old-style phone booth.

The ancient demosponges — probably measuring across no more than the width of a fork tine — were pinned down via fossilized steroids, called steranes, which are characteristic of the cell membranes of the sponges, rather than via direct fossils of the sponges themselves.

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The Father Factor: How Dad's Age Increases Baby's Risk of Mental Illness

When a large study linked schizophrenia to paternal age, some researchers wondered if the root cause, rather than age, was that men who had waited had the makings of the disease themselves. Getty Images

From Scientific American:

Could becoming a father after age 40 raise the risks that your children will have a mental illness?

* It is widely recognized that a 40-year-old woman has an increased risk of bearing a child with Down syndrome. What is not known is that a 40-year-old man has the same risk of fathering a child with schizophrenia—and even higher odds of his offspring having autism. The risk of bipolar disorder appears to rise as well.
* In the past couple of decades, the number of older fathers has increased. Birth rates for men older than 40 have jumped as much as 40 percent since 1980.
* The mechanisms behind the higher risks are still being investigated, although scientists have several hypotheses that could someday lead to better therapies or possibly even cures for these mental illnesses.

When my wife, Elizabeth, was pregnant, she had a routine ultrasound exam, and I was astonished by the images. The baby’s ears, his tiny lips, the lenses of his eyes and even the feathery, fluttering valves in his heart were as crisp and clear as the muscles and tendons in a Leonardo da Vinci drawing. Months before he was born, we were already squabbling about whom he looked like. Mostly, though, we were relieved; everything seemed to be fine.

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Intelligent Life Could Be Thriving On 40,000 Planets

This planet, located near the centre of the Milky Way about 20,000 light years from us, is just one of the 40,000 which could be harbouring intelligent life

From Daily Mail:

Science’s quest to discover life on Mars has so far failed to find even one little green man.

But not to worry. Aliens could be alive and well on almost 40,000 other planets.

Researchers have calculated that up to 37,964 worlds in our galaxy are hospitable enough to be home to creatures at least as intelligent as ourselves.

Astrophysicist Duncan Forgan created a computer programme that collated all the data on the 330 or so planets known to man and worked out what proportion would have conditions suitable for life.

The estimate, which took into account factors such as temperature and availability of water and minerals, was then extrapolated across the Milky Way.

Three scenarios of how life could develop were also taken into account.

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