Trees Are 'Crucial Famine Food'

From The BBC:

Trees can serve as a vital "famine food" to keep drought-hit communities alive when all other food crops fail, according to campaigners.

Food insecurity is a routine fact of life for many of the world's poorest people, Miranda Spitteler, chief executive of Tree Aid told BBC News.

She said the West needed to recognize the important role trees could play in reducing the need for conventional aid.

She also called for support for a local tree-based solution to food shortages.

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Scientists 'Grow Replacement Teeth In Mice'

From The Telegraph:

Scientists have managed to grow replacement teeth in mice from cells in a laboratory.

The team behind the research claim that it is a crucial step towards growing fully functioning "bioengineered" organs in the human body.

The scientists grew a tooth "germ", a seed-like piece of tissue which contains the cells and instructions necessary to form a tooth, which they then transplanted into the animal's jawbones.

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Newly Discovered Faults Illuminate Earthquake Hazard Along San Andreas

Image: A seismic map of the Salton Sea area reveals the grid covered by the CHIRP instrument (green lines), faults (black lines) and bomb target sites (gray boxes). The red dots represent earthquakes that have taken place in the area since 1983. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - San Diego)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2009) — New research by a team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers new insight into the San Andreas Fault as it extends beneath Southern California's Salton Sea. The team discovered a series of prominent faults beneath the sea, which transfer motion away from the San Andreas Fault as it disappears beneath the Salton Sea. The study provides new understanding of the intricate earthquake faults system beneath the sea and what role it may play in the earthquake cycle along the southern San Andreas Fault.

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5 Top Galactic Bodies Anyone Can See (With a Cheap Telescope)

The Great Nebula in Orion (Messier 42)

From Popular Mechanics:

Anthony Wesley beat NASA to the punch with help from one of his super powerful hand-modded telescopes when he observed the now famous black dot on Jupiter. But even a casual stargazer can catch some of the universe's five star views with an inexpensive telescope and a curious eye. Here are five celestial beauties you can see even with your $300, 75x zoom telescope.

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Scientists Uncork Potential Secret Of Red Wine's Health Benefits

Scientists have unraveled a mystery that has perplexed scientists since red wine was first discovered to have health benefits: how does resveratrol control inflammation? (Credit: iStockphoto/Ina Peters)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2009) — Scientists from Scotland and Singapore have unraveled a mystery that has perplexed scientists since red wine was first discovered to have health benefits: how does resveratrol control inflammation? New research published in the August 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, not only explains resveratrol's one-two punch on inflammation, but also show how it—or a derivative—can be used to treat potentially deadly inflammatory disease, such as appendicitis, peritonitis, and systemic sepsis.

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Humans 2.0: Replacing The Mind And Body

U.S. Army Sgt. Juan Arredondo, outfitted with an i-LIMB after losing his hand in Iraq, says it does things naturally. The i-LIMB has flexible hydraulic drives located directly in the movable finger joints. Credit: Touch Bionics

From Live Science:

When President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday that innovation would be a key to the future of the nation, he probably was not thinking specifically of artificial brains or replacement eyeballs.

But other researchers already have such goals in mind and are well on their way to building Humans 2.0, the real-life Steve Austin of the "Six Million Dollar Man."

Recent breakthroughs in bionics and lab-grown body parts — along with news last month that a Swiss research team aims to recreate the intricacies of the human brain within a decade — show science is rapidly creating many of the parts needed to build a fully functional human almost from scratch.

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Five Tools To Survive the Apocalypse

Air: Filter out ammonia, chlorine or swirling toxic dust. The Advantage respirator gives a snug fit in seconds, using a harness that tightens two head-straps with a single clip. Its facepiece comes in three sizes to protect all types of people. Advantage 420 Half Mask Respirator $40; msanorthamerica.com Brian Klutch

From Popular Science:

Swine flu, nuclear tests, global warming—signs of impending doom abound. Should the unthinkable happen, the smart survivalist has two options: flee the planet or, for those of us who aren’t Richard Branson, stock up on gear that will meet your basic needs during Armageddon. If the world doesn’t end, you can always take your new gadgets camping.

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Comet Formation Theory May Not Be Set In Stone (Or Ice)

Photo: CLOUDY ORIGINS: A comet called 2001 RX14 likely originated from a hypothesized region called the Oort cloud, far outside the planetary region of the solar system. A new model of how comets wind up near the inner planets may revise estimates of the Oort cloud's properties. Mike Solontoi/University of Washington

From Scientific American:

A new model for comet production revises the theory of their origins.

A few times a year, a visitor from deep space swings by Earth's neighborhood. Usually coming in peace, these interlopers pass by close enough to be seen, then continue on their way.

The uninvited guests are comets, streaky globules of ice and dust dislodged from one of their usual haunts far from the sun and planets: the Oort cloud. Named for Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, who hypothesized its existence in 1950, the theorized cloud is thought to contain billions or even trillions of comets that range out a few thousand to tens of thousands of times as far from the sun as Earth is. Oort cloud comets are occasionally nudged onto trajectories carrying them into the inner solar system by the passing of nearby stars or other interactions with the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy.

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Dolphin Body Language 'Follows Human Verbal Communication'

Dolphins inspect a tiger cub at a safari park in Shenzhen, China. Scientists have discovered that the mammals' body language follows human rules of verbal communication. Photo: BARCROFT MEDIA

From The Telegraph:

Dolphin body language follows human rules of verbal communication, scientists have discovered.

As a general rule, the most frequently used words in human languages tend to be the shortest.

The same law applies to dolphins slapping their tails, diving, flopping sideways, and performing other movements when surface swimming, according to Spanish and British researchers.

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Shake, Rattle And Roll -- Why So Few Japanese Pagodas Have Ever Fallen Down

From The Economist:


YOUR correspondent is indebted to readers for their interesting comments about last week’s column on timber-framed buildings. He is especially grateful to Anjin-san, whose observations about Japanese pagodas reminded him of a day spent a dozen years ago with Shuzo Ishida, a structural engineer at Kyoto Institute of Technology. Mr Ishida, known to his students as “Professor Pagoda”, has a passion for the building’s unique dynamics.

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Galileo's Vision

Image: Galileo was the first to discover the moons of Jupiter. Michael Benson / Kinetikon Pictures / Corbis (Jupiter) / Scala / Art Resource, NY (Galileo)

From The Smithsonium:

Four hundred years ago, the Italian scientist looked into space and changed our view of the universe.

Inside a glass case sits a plain-looking tube, worn and scuffed. Lying in the street, it would look like a length of old pipe. But as I approach it, Derrick Pitts—only half in jest—commands: "Bow down!"

The unremarkable-looking object is in fact one of the most important artifacts in the history of science: it's one of only two surviving telescopes known to have been made by Galileo Galilei, the man who helped revolutionize our conception of the universe. The telescope is the centerpiece of "Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy," an exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (until September 7).

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Integral Disproves Dark Matter Origin For Mystery Radiation

Combining more than 4 years of observations, the inner Galaxy has been mapped in the 511 keV positron annihilation line with unprecedented detail as shown above using the SPI spectrometer. For the first time, positron annihilation is found to be asymmetric in the inner Galactic disk. Consistent with earlier findings, the annihilation emission is brightest around the Galactic centre. In the sky maps, the Galactic centre is at the origin and the Galactic disk runs along the equator. (Credit: ESA/ INTEGRAL/ MPE (G. Weidenspointner et al.))

From Space Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2009) — A team of researchers working with data from ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has disproved theories that some form of dark matter explains mysterious radiation in the Milky Way.

That this radiation exists has been known since the 1970s, and several theories have been proposed to explain it. Integral’s unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution showed that it strongly peaks towards the centre of the Galaxy, with an asymmetry along the Galactic disc.

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Experts Puzzled By Spot On Venus

From the BBC:

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.

The spot was first identified by an amateur astronomer on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft.

Data from the European probe suggests the spot appeared at least four days before it was spotted from Earth.

The bright spot has since started to expand, being spread by winds in Venus's thick atmosphere.

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Hacking Threat 'Exposes Every iPhone In The World' To Takeover By Criminals

'Vulnerable': Hackers could exploit a security flaw in the iPhone within two weeks and then take devices over in minutes, experts warn

From The Daily Mail:

Criminals could take control of every iPhone in the world via text message, owners are being warned.

Hackers could exploit a newly discovered flaw in Apple's handset to control its key functions - stealing data, making calls, surfing the internet and sending texts.

Security experts warn that hackers could soon hijack any of the world's 21million iPhones for identity theft and other crimes.

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Smoothing The Way For Light

Image: Guiding light: Silver films patterned with structures like this pyramid guide light along their surface and concentrate it at the tips. This structure’s surface is very smooth, which prevents scattering. Credit: Science/American Association for the Advancement of Science

From Technology Review:

A technique makes smooth metal films for optical computing and imaging.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a cheap way to repeatedly make very smooth nanopatterned thin films. The advance could have implications for making devices--such as more efficient solar cells, higher-resolution microscopes, and optical computers--that use light in an unconventional way.

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The U.S. Army's Solar Enewrgy Program

Acciona solar thermal plant in Nevada.
(Credit: Acciona)

Army Starts Solar Plant; Next Step: Care About Climate Change -- The Danger Room

The U.S. Army is about to start building a 500 megawatt solar thermal plant in the California desert. When it’s done, the facility will be one of the largest renewable energy plants in the world. Which is kind of ironic, since the Army doesn’t pay all that much attention to climate change. Turns out, sustainable energy is safer, said Dr. Kevin Geiss, the program director for the project.

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More News On the Army's Solar Program

Sun power: Army unveils giant solar project -- CNET
Army Green: Ft. Irwin Has Builders for 500 MW Solar Project -- Wall Street Journal
Clark Energy hired for Defense Department solar job -- Business Journal
Army Plans 500 MW of Solar Power at Fort Irwin by 2022 -- Treehugger

Giant Pencil Traces Achaeological Finds Fast

Photo: Less pain, less staking (Image: Felix Ordonez/Reuters)

From New Scientist:

EVERY object unearthed by an archaeological dig must have its exact position recorded. This is normally a painstaking process involving measuring rods and string, but a device that uses technology originally developed to guide robots could speed up the process.

Gran Dolina in central Spain is a Palaeolithic site that contains important hominin remains which date from between 780,000 and 300,000 years ago. Thousands of fossils are discovered there every year, but registering them all by hand makes progress frustratingly slow. So archaeologists working on the site contacted Angélica de Antonio Jiménez and Fernando Seco at the Institute of Industrial Automation in Madrid, to see if they could come up with a better way.

Read more .....

New HIV Strain Leapt To Humans From Gorillas: Study

A gorilla at a park in Rwanda in 2004

From AFP:

PARIS — French virologists on Sunday said they had found a new subtype of the AIDS virus that appears to have jumped the species barrier to humans from gorillas.

The new strain, found in a woman from Cameroon, West Africa, is part of the HIV-1 family of microbes that account for the vast majority of cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), they said.

Until now, all have been linked to the chimpanzee.

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Update: New HIV strain discovered in woman from Cameroon --AP

Evidence Of Liquid Water In Comets Reveals Possible Origin Of Life

Comet Hale-Bopp. The watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply, experts argue. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kenneth C. Zirkel)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 31, 2009) — Comets have contained vast amounts of liquid water in their interiors during the first million years of their formation, a new study claims.

The watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply. So argue Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology in a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology

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Caught On Video: Immune Cell Destroys Bacteria

Confocal microscope image showing insect immune cells (green) containing fluorescently labeled E.coli (red). Credit: University of Bath

From Live Science:

In a starring role for E. coli, researchers have developed a new technique to make movies of bacteria as they infect their victims and are consumed by the host's immune cells.

The movies mark the first time that scientists have been able to look at bacteria infecting living organisms in real time, according to the researchers. Most studies of bacterial infections are preformed after the host has died.

The scientists, from the University of Bath and the University of Exeter in the UK, tested out their movie-making method on developing fruit fly embryos. They injected fluorescently tagged bacteria into the embryos and observed how the microbes interacted with the insect's immune cells, called hemocytes, using time-lapse confocal microscopy, an imaging technique. They used two types of bacteria for the study Escherichia coli and Photorhabdus asymbiotica.

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