Key to Happiness: Location, Location, Location

A San Diego sunset is not a cure for depression, but it can't hurt. Image credit: Dreamstime

From Live Science:

I am boarding a plane headed to San Diego, Calif., from my home town of Ithaca, New York, and pondering the recent announcement that where one lives is connected to the incidence of Frequent Mental Distress (FMD).

As I take off my down coat (yes, it's April, but we just had snow), discard my galoshes, and roll up the sleeves of my flannel shirt, I am thinking hard about the researchers from San Diego who presumably averted their gaze from the pounding surf before their office windows long enough to analyze surveys on mental health from the Centers for Disease Control to discover that people who live on, say, Hawaiian beaches have fewer bouts of stress, depression and emotional problems than people who live in the misty hollows of Appalachia.

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RNA Used To Reprogram One Cell Type Into Another

Rat neuron with a micropipette inserting mRNAs directly onto the cell. After laser photoporation the mRNA goes into the cell and the TIPeR-induced changes in cell phenotype are initiated. (Credit: Chia-wen Wu, PhD and James Eberwine, PhD University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2009) — For the past decade, researchers have tried to tweak cells at the gene and nucleus level to reprogram their identity. Now, working on the idea that the signature of a cell is defined by molecules called messenger RNAs, which contain the chemical blueprint for how to make a protein, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering have found another way to change one cell type into another.

By simply flooding one cell type, a nerve cell, with the an abundance of a specific type of messenger RNA (mRNA) from another cell type, the investigators changed a neuron into an astrocyte-like cell, a star-shaped brain cell that helps to maintain the blood-brain barrier, regulates the chemical environment around cells, responds to injury, and releases regulatory substances.

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Early Warning Clue For Dementia

From BBC:

Heightened activity in an area of the brain that deals with memory may give a subtle early warning of dementia decades later, UK research suggests.

It was known that carrying a rogue version of a gene called ApoE4 raised the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Now researchers have linked the same mutation with raised activity in an area of the brain called the hippocampus in people as young as 20.

The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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Is Fringe's Genetic Monster Possible?

(Photograph by Craig Blankenhorn/FOX)

From Popular Mechanics:

In last night's episode of Fringe, "Unleashed," a genetically generated monster terrorizes Boston—and mad scientist Walter Bishop, son Peter and FBI agent Olivia Dunham must find the transgenic animal, a gila monster-wasp-bat hybrid that activists had let loose from an animal testing facility. The creature—which had physical characteristics of all the animals it was spliced together from—mostly kills people with its massive claws and prodigious fangs, but its real drive is to infect people with its larvae to create more monsters. PM spoke with geneticists to find out just how close science is to creating a Fringe-style supermonster.

When a car-full of dead college students—their bodies mangled by an animal "not indigenous to the area," according to the local coroner—it's not long before Walter pinpoints a transgenic animal as the culprit. "It's an animal creation, an organism made up of the genes of many species," he explains. "It's accelerated Darwinism!" Bishop, of course, had worked on such animals during his heyday, but none of his creations had survived. "It's possible, in theory," he says. "You would have to solve many problems," like stopping gene rejection similar to what people experience when their bodies reject donor organs.

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Pirate Bay Verdict Is Guilty -- News Updates And Commentaries

The Pirate Bay Guilty; Jail for File-Sharing Foursome -- Wired News

Four men connected to The Pirate Bay, the world's most notorious file sharing site, were convicted by a Swedish court Friday of contributory copyright infringement, and each sentenced to a year in prison.

Pirate Bay administrators Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were found guilty in the case, along with Carl Lundström, who was accused of funding the five-year-old operation.

In addition to jail time, the defendants were ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to a handful of entertainment companies, including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros, EMI and Columbia Pictures, for the infringement of 33 specific movie and music properties tracked by industry investigators.

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More News On The Pirate's Bay Verdict

‘Pirate Bay’ founders convicted by Swedish court -- Christian Science Monitor
What does the Pirate Bay verdict mean for innovation? -- The Guardian
Analysis: why the Pirate Bay prosecution is no deterrent -- Times Online
Pirate Bay Operator: “Definitely Not a Fair Judgment” -- Wall Street Journal
The Pirate Bay Guilty of Breaching Copyrights -- Time Magazine
Pirate Bay four jailed for breaking copyright in Swedish file-sharing trial -- The Telegraph
Pirate Bay Founders Sentenced to Jail, Fines for Violating Copyright Law -- Rolling Stone
The Pirate Bay Verdict and the Future of File-Sharing -- PC World
Guilty Pirate Bay Defendant Still Calls Verdict 'Epic Win' -- Extreme Tech
PirateBay founders guilty -- ZDNet
Pirate Bay defendants to fight on -- CNET News
Copyright holders cheer Pirate Bay verdict -- CNET News
Pirate Bay founders found guilty, get jail sentence -- Techspot
A to Z of online piracy -- CNN

U.S. Astronauts Might Hitch Rides on Chinese Spacecraft

An artist's depiction of China's Shenzhou manned spacecraft in space. Credit: Simon Zajc

From Space.com:

Once NASA's space shuttle fleet is retired next year, U.S. astronauts might arrive at the International Space Station via Chinese spacecraft, according to U.S. President Barack Obama's science chief.

The prospect is being aired by presidential science adviser John Holdren, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology, in an interview posted on ScienceInsider - a web-based blog from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

In the ScienceInsider interview, Holdren underscored the fact that President Obama's administration is intent on retiring the space shuttle in 2010, with the president open to an additional shuttle mission flown within 2010.

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Capturing The Quake: Fascinating satellite image Which Reveals How The Earth Moved In Italy Tragedy

Pictured: An 'interferogram' shows the Earth's deformation pattern over the L'Aquila area in central Italy following the devastating quake last week

From The Daily Mail:

This intriguing image is being scrutinised by Italian scientists trying to unravel exactly how the Earth moved during Italy's devastating quake last week.

The picture shows shock waves radiating from the epicentre of the massive 6.3 seismic event in the medieval town of L’Aquila.

Its rainbow-coloured interference patterns were deduced using 'synthetic aperture radar' (SAR) data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Envisat and the Italian Space Agency’s COSMO-SkyMed satellites.

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Archaeologists Discover Temple That Sheds Light On So-called Dark Age

TAP excavations on the Tayinat Citadel. (Credit: Tim Harrison)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2009) — The discovery of a remarkably well-preserved monumental temple in Turkey — thought to be constructed during the time of King Solomon in the 10th/9th-centuries BCE — sheds light on the so-called Dark Age.

Uncovered by the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) in the summer of 2008, the discovery casts doubt upon the traditional view that the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive.

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The Chemistry of Life: The Human Body

From Live Science:

You are what you eat. But do you recall munching some molybdenum or snacking on selenium? Some 60 chemical elements are found in the body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown.

Roughly 96 percent of the mass of the human body is made up of just four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, with a lot of that in the form of water. The remaining 4 percent is a sparse sampling of the periodic table of elements.

Some of the more prominent representatives are called macro nutrients, whereas those appearing only at the level of parts per million or less are referred to as micronutrients.

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West Africa Faces 'megadroughts'

From The BBC:

Severe droughts lasting centuries have happened often in West Africa's recent history, and another one is almost inevitable, researchers say.

Analysis of sediments in a Ghanaian lake shows the last of these "megadroughts" ended 250 years ago.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers suggest man-made climate change may make the situation worse.

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Total Recall: The Woman Who Can't Forget

From Wired:

It's a Monday afternoon in November, and I'm driving down Ventura Boulevard with Jill Price, the woman who can't forget. Price, who is 43, has spent most of her life here in Los Angeles, and she remembers everything. In the space of two minutes, she tells me about the former motel lodge with a bear in front, the Courtyard hotel that used to be a Hilton, and a bowling alley—since replaced by a Marshalls—where a Nicolas Cage film was shot. All this comes pouring out so fast, I wonder aloud whether Price has had too much coffee. She laughs, says no, pulls slightly at her blond hair, and starts up again.

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Would Life Form Differently Around Cool Stars?

This artist's conception shows a young, hypothetical planet around a cool star. Credit: JPL

From Universe Today:

“Life as we know it” seems to be the common caveat in our search for other living things in the Universe. But there’s also the possibility of life “as we don’t know it.” A new study from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope hints that planets around stars cooler than our sun might possess a different mix of potentially life-forming, or “prebiotic,” chemicals. While life on Earth is thought to have arisen from a hot soup of different chemicals, would the same life-generating mix come together around other stars with different temperatures? (And should we call it ‘The Gazpacho Effect?’) “Prebiotic chemistry may unfold differently on planets around cool stars,” said Ilaria Pascucci, lead author of the new study.

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Do You Think Bandwidth Grows On Trees?

From Slate:

User-generated content may have changed the Internet, but sites like YouTube are suffocating under the costs of storing it.

Everyone knows that print newspapers are our generation's horse-and-buggy; in the most wired cities, they've been pummeled by competition from the Web. But it might surprise you to learn that one of the largest and most-celebrated new-media ventures is burning through cash at a rate that makes newspapers look like wise investments. It's called YouTube: According a recent report by analysts at the financial-services company Credit Suisse, Google will lose $470 million on the video-sharing site this year alone. To put it another way, the Boston Globe, which is on track to lose $85 million in 2009, is five times more profitable—or, rather, less unprofitable—than YouTube. All so you can watch this helium-voiced oddball whenever you want.

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Love Eternal? Egyptian Dig Hopes To Uncover Cleopatra And Mark Antony Side By Side

From The Daily Mail:

The burial place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony has remained an enduring mystery, but new evidence suggests it could soon be laid to rest.

Archaeologists are to begin searching three new sites identified in a radar survey of a temple close to Alexandria for the tombs of the celebrated queen of Egypt and the Roman general.

Egypt's top archaeologist Zahi Hawass said the finds have raised hopes that the legendary couple will be found together in a system of tunnels beneath the temple of Tabusiris Magna.

The discovery would be even bigger than the uncovering of King Tutankhamun's tomb, which was found in 1922, according to Dr Hawass.

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Factors Other Than Genes Could Cause Obesity, Insulin Study Shows

Purdue researchers have uncovered new evidence that factors other than genes could cause obesity, finding that genetically identical cells store widely differing amounts of fat depending on subtle variations in how cells process insulin. Here, insulin (green) is present in cells with no fat storage and absent in cells with fat storage at two days after insulin addition. This observation indicates faster insulin processing rates in cells with fat storage. Fluorophore-labeled insulin (green) is visualized with fluorescence imaging, and fat is visualized with coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering - or CARS - imaging (red/white). (Credit: Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2009) — Researchers have uncovered new evidence suggesting factors other than genes could cause obesity, finding that genetically identical cells store widely differing amounts of fat depending on subtle variations in how cells process insulin.

Learning the precise mechanism responsible for fat storage in cells could lead to methods for controlling obesity.

"Insights from our study also will be important for understanding the precise roles of insulin in obesity or Type II diabetes, and to the design of effective intervention strategies," said Ji-Xin Cheng, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry.

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Strange 1761 Atmospheric Phenomenon Explained

From Live Science:

Unusual atmospheric phenomena were recorded worldwide in 1761, unexplained at the time.

Now independent astronomer Kevin D. Pang of La Cañada Flintridge, California, says he's figured out the cause — and he credits Benjamin Franklin with a conceptual assist.

While serving as American ambassador in Paris, Franklin first made the connection between a "dry fog" that had obscured the Sun for months in 1784, the extremely cold weather in Europe and North America that same year, and the 1783 eruption of Iceland's Laki volcano. The fog was, we now know, droplets of sulfuric acid, called vog (volcanic fog).

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Why Some People Sneeze When The Sun Comes Out

Every time some people go out into the sun, they sneeze: why does it happen?
(Image: RESO / Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

Are you a photic sneezer? Take the questionnaire and find out

I WAS rounding the corner to the bus stop when it hit me - a bright shaft of sunlight smack between the eyes. My reaction was immediate: an unpleasant prickling in my nose, a quickening of my breath, an uncontrollable watering of my eyes. Then, almost as quickly as the sensation came, relief, blessed relief. Aaaaa-tisshoo! A sneeze.

It wasn't the first time. In fact, the same thing happens every time I go into the sun. For a long time, I thought it was a quirk all of my own. Then a friend mentioned she was similarly afflicted. Next my mother came out of the closet. With a bit of digging around I came to a startling realisation: not only am I not alone, but the "photic sneeze reflex" is actually common. Quite how common, no one knows exactly - but anything between 1 in 10 and 1 in 3 of us might be affected.

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PIN Crackers Nab Holy Grail Of Bank Card Security

From Wired/Threat Level:

Hackers have crossed into new frontiers by devising sophisticated ways to steal large amounts of personal identification numbers, or PINs, protecting credit and debit cards, says an investigator. The attacks involve both unencrypted PINs and encrypted PINs that attackers have found a way to crack, according to an investigator behind a new report looking at the data breaches.

The attacks, says Bryan Sartin, director of investigative response for Verizon Business, are behind some of the millions of dollars in fraudulent ATM withdrawals that have occurred around the United States.

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Why Teenagers Are Moody, Scientists Find The Answer

From The Telegraph:

Teenagers are selfish, reckless and irritable because their brains develop slower than their bodies, scientists have claimed.

Psychologists used to blame the unpleasant characteristics of adolescence on hormones.

However, new brain imaging scans have revealed a high number of structural changes in teenagers and those in their early 20s.

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Technology Opens Promise, Perils Of Ocean Mining

This 1997 photo released by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows the robotic arm of an unmanned aquatic vehicle reaching toward a hydrothermal vent in the east Pacific Ocean far off the coast of Chile. New technology and worldwide demand for metals have combined to make feasible deep ocean mining of the mineral-laden liquid spewed from these vents. By Pat Hickey, AP

From USA Today:

BOSTON — There's gold in that thar sea floor. Silver, copper, zinc and lead, too. The problem is, it's a mile or two underwater and encased in massive mineral deposits that layer a dark, mysterious world. But new technology and worldwide demand have combined to make mining for these metals economically feasible for the first time.

A breakthrough project is moving forward in New Guinea, and new rules to govern deep ocean mining will be set by an international authority this spring.

On Thursday, scientists, businessmen and policymakers from 20 countries meet on Cape Cod for a public forum on how to best extract these riches while protecting hidden worlds in the earth's oceans. Strange animals, from six-foot tubeworms to "blind" shrimp, thrive in water as acidic as battery acid, near "hydrothermal vents" that spew out mineral-laden liquid as hot as 750 degrees.

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