gregladen | January 18, 2008"A University of Alberta Arctic ice researcher is closing in on some real understanding about the process that might be feeding rising sea levels."
Using satellite microwave data, Martin Sharp, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has helped lead a team of researchers who remapped the summer melt extent and duration across Greenland for a five-year period stretching from 2000 to 2004.
"What we're interested in is the problem of explaining why the rates of global sea level rising have more or less doubled since the early 1990s compared with the early part of the…
gregladen | January 18, 2008"MIT researchers have discovered why an unusually short bacterial protein can have many more interactions than would normally be expected of something its size."
The team, led by biology professor Graham Walker, found that the protein, UmuD, belongs to a recently discovered class of proteins called intrinsically disordered proteins.
Proteins, which consist of chains of amino acids, locally fold themselves into one of two structures--a helix or a pleated sheet. In contrast, intrinsically disordered proteins lack such well-defined local structures.
The lack of formal structure probably allows…
gregladen | January 18, 2008Enjoy a little on-line learning....
This sounds like a young David Attenborough
[Thanks Marta!]
gregladen | January 18, 2008A translocated population of the Critically Endangered Laysan Duck has reached 200 in only three years.Anas laysanensis is commonly known as the Laysan Duck. It occurs in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, and nowhere else, though it was once found across the Hawaiian Island chain. They were nearly wiped out by 1860, confined thereafter only to Laysan Island.
One of the problems for these ducks is that invasive rats eat their eggs.
In 2004 and 2005, 42 individuals made a 750-mile voyage across the Pacific and were released at Midway Atoll NWR, managed by the U.S. Fish and…
gregladen | January 18, 2008This grab-you-by-the-throat speech by Ghanaian economist George Ayittey unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. These "Hippos" (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile "Cheetah Generation," a "new breed of Africans" taking their futures into their own hands.
gregladen | January 18, 2008Pope Benedict XVI last night called off a visit to Rome's main university in the face of hostility from some of its academics and students, who accused him of despising science and defending the Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo.
The Pope is a Dope, says Rome U
The controversy was unparalleled in a country where criticism of the Roman Catholic church is normally muted. The Pope had been due to speak tomorrow during ceremonies marking the start of the academic year at Rome's largest and oldest university, La Sapienza. But the Vatican said last night it had been "considered opportune to…
gregladen | January 18, 2008The 11th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count, run by Cornell's Ornithology Lab and the National Audubon Society, is set for February 15th to 18th. Anyone can participate, and enter their results on line.
The reports contribute valuable scientific information for conservation, spotlighting changes in bird population and distribution from year to year. Participation is free, and no registration is required.
Last year, birders submitted a record-breaking 80,000 checklists -- reporting 11 million birds and 613 species. Count results over the years show how such species as the Eurasian-collared…
gregladen | January 18, 2008They always told you to eat your carrots, to improve your eyesight. Well, a deficiency of vitamin A (found in carrots, and lots of other foods) causes eye disease in a lot of children. In areas where Maize (corn) is a significant staple, there can be a problem because maize varies a great deal in how much vitamin A it can provide via precursor molecules. A new study in Science explores this relationship.
Maize is the dominant subsistence crop in much of sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, where between 17 and 30% of children under age of 5 are vitamin A-deficient. This results in…
gregladen | January 18, 2008There is a discussion on the internet about Junk DNA, that includes a discussion at Sandwalk (Larry Moran's blog) ... I made a comment there about genome size that was responded to by T.R. Gregory. I started to write my response in Larry's Little Box, but realized that it would not fit. So it is here:
Imagine a gene family distributed among all the species in a given taxon. There are several alleles per gene. The gene codes for an enzyme that plays a role in determining cell size. Different combinations of genes/alleles exist to cause cell size to vary such that each species has a…
gregladen | January 18, 2008[Post Revised]
According to one story:
After a public hearing Thursday evening to discuss a possible change in the way science courses are taught in public schools, the Clay County [Florida] School Board voted unanimously to support a change in the state science curriculum that would use the word evolution in the classroom.
The state Board of Education will scheduled to vote Feb. 19 on the change, which would require more in-depth teaching of evolution and other scientific topics while setting specific benchmarks for students to meet.
Source is here.
But according to other sources, things…
gregladen | January 18, 2008Two hundred pound robot lumbering along on tread mill, doing the bidding of a monkey several thousand miles away.An international and interdisciplinary team of scientists have developed a robot that will carry out physical activities in imitation of the activities of a monkey. The monkey and the robot are hooked together via the internet. The monkey has a brain-machine interface. When the monkey moves along on a treadmill, the robot mirrors those movements. The monkey and the robot need not be anywhere near each other, of course. In fact, it is probably a good idea to keep them in…
gregladen | January 17, 2008
Jan 17
Benjamin Franklin born in Boston, 1706
Jan 17
Justice Dept. begins IBM anti-trust suit, 1969 (drops it, January 8, 1982)
Jan 17
Fellowship reaches Lorien
Jan 17
Led Zeppelin's first album is released, 1969
Jan 17
Aujourd'hui, c'est la St(e) Roseline.
Jan 18
Grey whale migration, California
Jan 18
Revolution Day in Tunisia
gregladen | January 17, 2008Every time I put this video up, You Tube eliminates it. So look quick before it goes away again.
gregladen | January 17, 2008The Materials Research Society has an annual competition called "Science as Art." There are some pretty spectacular images on their web site, here.
Hat tip: Canned Platypus
gregladen | January 17, 2008In the talk that opened TEDGlobal 2007 ("Africa: The Next Chapter"), South African investment banker Euvin Naidoo sets the scene, framing the conversation that would unfold over the four-day event. "What's the worst thing you've heard about Africa?" he asks. After fielding call-outs of "famine," "war," "corruption," he urges the audience to move past these preconceptions -- and offers a compelling picture of a continent on the cusp of enormous change.
gregladen | January 17, 2008Things are just not like what they used to be. You know this. You know that the Age of Dinosaurs, for instance, was full of dinosaurs and stuff, and before transitional fossil forms crawled out of the sea to colonize the land, all animals were aquatic, etc. But did you know that from a purely modern perspective, the Miocene was the most important geological period?
First, lets get one thing straight. We are not in the so-called "Holocene." The so-called "Holocene" is a totally bogus geological period. Saying "Hey, we're in the Holocene, not the Pleistocene ... the Pleistocene is over…