4/19 Scientific American

Scientific American         How Science Stopped BP's Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill April 19, 2011 at 3:01 PM   Forty-eight hours into an attempt to muscle a gusher of oil back into the deep-sea well from which it spewed, the flow of petroleum and gas refused to slow. Screen after screen in a special room at BP's headquarters in Houston showed the oil gushing undiminished, silently witnessed underwater by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The room--called the HIVE, for Highly Immersive Visualization Environment--was hardly the only place at BP buzzing with activity. Earlier, locked in the 10-meter-square "intervention room" on the third floor, scientist fought scientist in the battle over whether to proceed with an established way to plug the leak, the so-called "top kill" operation. Nobel Prize winning physicist and U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu remained unconvinced of BP's technical case, whereas geologist by training Tony Hayward, CEO of the British oil major, felt it had as much as a 70 percent chance of success, according to the President's National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling report released in January. [More]             This email was sent to hafecktor@gmail.com. Delivered by Feed My Inbox PO Box 682532 Franklin, TN 37068 Create Account Unsubscribe Here

4/19 Scientific American

Scientific American         NASA dishes out $270 million to speed U.S. return to orbit after space shuttle retirement April 19, 2011 at 2:34 AM   The space shuttle program has just two launches remaining on the calendar, one April 29 and one in June. After that, no one knows what the next U.S.-based rocket to take astronauts to orbit will look like, when it will launch, or who will have built it. But all indications are that the rocket won't be NASA's--the space agency is hoping private firms will soon be capable of safely ferrying U.S. astronauts to and from orbit. [More]         No Let-Up in Severe Weather, Two Outbreaks This Week April 19, 2011 at 1:36 AM   As a relentless severe weather pattern continues, part of the Heartland will be the target for two severe weather events this week. Two storm systems will roll out of the Rockies over the next several days, pulling together warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, a sweep of dry air from the west, cold air aloft and a strong jet stream. [More]         Wild April Weather to be Followed by Wicked May April 19, 2011 at 1:36 AM   Severe weather experts at AccuWeather.com are forecasting the intense weather outbreaks in the U.S. to continue beyond April into much of May. According to Severe Weather Expert Meteorologist Henry Margusity, "We see no let-up in the weather pattern that has led to the outbreaks this month." [More]         Beware the military-psychological complex: A $125-million program to boost soldiers' "fitness" raises ethical questions April 19, 2011 at 12:43 AM   Fifty years ago, in the same farewell speech in which he warned about the "unwarranted influence" of the "military-industrial complex" on American politics, President Dwight Eisenhower also deplored the growing dependence of scientists on federal funding. "The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by federal employment, project allocations and the power of money is ever present--and is gravely to be regarded." Eisenhower's speech comes to mind as I gravely regard the latest example of the militarization of science, a $125 million collaboration between psychologists and the U.S. Army called "Comprehensive Soldier Fitness," or CSF. The program calls for giving "resilience training" to more than one million Army soldiers and civilian employees to help them cope with the stress of military life. A U.S. Army Web site calls the CSF "a long term strategy that better prepares the Army community--including all soldiers, family members, and the Department of the Army civilian workforce--to not only survive, but also thrive at a cognitive and behavioral level in the face of protracted warfare and everyday challenges of Army life that are common in the 21st century." [More]         Early human fossils from South Africa could upend longheld view of human evolution April 18, 2011 at 10:45 PM   MINNEAPOLIS--It’s a great irony of paleoanthropology that for all the insights scientists have been able to glean from the fossil record about our early ancestors, the australopithecines (Lucy and her kin), they have precious little to document the origin of our own genus, Homo. They know that Homo descended from one of those australopithecine species and that over the course of that transition our ancestors evolved from chimp-size creatures with short legs and small brains into tall humans with long legs and large brains, among other hallmark traits. But the details of this evolutionary transformation--when the distinctive Homo characteristics arose and why--have remained elusive, because fossils of early Homo are rare and the ones that have turned up are generally too fragmentary to yield much information. To that end, last spring Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his colleagues announced their discovery of two partial human skeletons ( pictured above ) from that mysterious period that might well revolutionize researcher’s understanding of how our genus got its start. The specimens, which date to around 1.95 million years ago, were said to exhibit a mosaic of traits linking them to both Australopithecus and Homo, leading the team to propose that they represent a previously unknown species of human-- Australopithecus sediba --that could be the direct ancestor of Homo. The interpretation was controversial . Some critics argued that the fossils do belong in Australopithecus, but have no special relationship to Homo; others contended that they represent a dead-end branch of Homo, rather than ancestor of later species, including H. sapiens. [More]         Constricted Living Space Associated With Dementia Risk April 18, 2011 at 10:22 PM   Keeping the brain active and engaged appears to combat the cognitive decline associated with getting older. Now a study has found a new, but related, factor in maintaining a sharp mind--the space in which we live. Researchers recruited almost 1300 senior citizens, none of whom showed any signs of clinical dementia at the start of the study. The participants had their cognitive function tested annually for up to eight years. And they also described their living space. For example, maybe they mostly hung around their bedroom. Perhaps they spent time in the yard. Or frequently traveled. [More]         Vanishing Ice Allows Storms to Erode Alaska's Coast April 18, 2011 at 7:30 PM   Portions of the Arctic coast are eroding by more than 26 feet per year, a problem that is likely to worsen as climate change intensifies, according to a new study. [More]         The Science of Tornadoes April 18, 2011 at 7:00 PM   How funnels form, what drives tornado activity, and what scientists are doing to better understand them--our collection of articles, video and podcasts explain the basics [More]         The Catlin Arctic Survey: Thermohaline Circulation April 18, 2011 at 5:30 PM   If you look at a map of the world and draw a line through London, a latitude of about 50 degrees North and follow this line across the world, you'll see that it passes through southern Siberia and skims the southern shores of Hudson Bay in Canada. The week before I came out to the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Base, the temperature in Hudson Bay was lurking between -20°C and -15°C, whilst London was starting to nudge a balmy 8°C.   [More]         To Share and Share Alike April 18, 2011 at 5:30 PM   Bacteria and archaea--collectively known as prokaryotes--live pretty much everywhere, dividing happily in places from stomach acid to deep-sea vents. They can thrive in so many different places because their genomes are incredibly flexible: they can alter, lose and duplicate genes almost at will. Scientists have long recognized that prokaryotes can also acquire genes from their neighbors (a move that contributes to antibiotic resistance). But this method of gaining new DNA, termed horizontal gene transfer, was thought to be relatively rare and to occur only under strong pressures in the environment, such as exposure to powerful antibiotics. A recent study in PLoS Genetics has found, instead, that pro­kar­y­otes acquire genes from near-by microbes quite often. This transfer, which can take place when one bug obtains genetic information from another via a bridge or a virus, can happen even when the two prokaryotes are from different species. [More]         Too Hard For Science? Creating Naked Singularities April 18, 2011 at 5:00 PM   Neutrino beams might create such enigmas, but dare we risk making anything so unpredictable? In "Too Hard For Science?" I interview scientists about ideas they would love to explore that they don't think could be investigated. For instance, they might involve machines beyond the realm of possibility, such as particle accelerators as big as the sun, or they might be completely unethical, such as lethal experiments involving people. This feature aims to look at the impossible dreams, the seemingly intractable problems in science. However, the question mark at the end of "Too Hard For Science?" suggests that nothing might be impossible. [More]         Costa Rica Rock Hunt Goes Far Below Pacific Ocean April 18, 2011 at 4:32 PM   By Alex Leff PUNTARENAS, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Scientists set off from Costa Rica on Sunday to drill a hole deep under the sea and directly extract rocks from record depths that could add to the understanding of climate change. [More]         Is a geothermal heat pump right for you? April 18, 2011 at 4:00 PM   I've tried it all: caulking cracks, blowing in insulation, replacing drafty windows and--I'm especially proud of this one--installing a mail-slot cover so airtight it could be used in a space shuttle docking module . Yet my home heating bill remains an object of fear and loathing. After years of trying low-tech solutions, I'm drawn to a high-tech solution, and the one I keep hearing about is the geothermal heat pump. Heat pumps, of whatever variety, give you the giddy feeling of breaking the laws of physics. The gas boiler in my basement is 80 percent efficient; burning gas unavoidably heats the exhaust gases as well as the water for the radiators. An electric heater is almost 100 percent efficient. But a heat pump can be more than 100 percent efficient. A 1000-watt electric heater emits 3400 BTU of heat in an hour, but the same amount of electricity, used to run a heat pump, might transfer 15000 BTU of heat into the house. [More]         A year on, Gulf still grapples with BP oil spill April 18, 2011 at 3:34 PM   By Anna Driver and Matthew Bigg [More]         Foam Alone: Do Furniture Flame Retardants Save Enough Lives to Justify Their Environmental Damage? April 18, 2011 at 2:38 PM   Legislation on California state Sen. Mark Leno's desk has the potential to affect every household in the U.S. If Leno has his way, the state's textile and furniture manufacturers, and thus probably all such makers in the U.S., will drastically alter the amount of flame retardant carried in almost every sofa, love seat and easy chair in the country. [More]         The Orderly Chaos of Proteins [Video] April 18, 2011 at 2:38 PM   The traditional view of proteins is that, right after being synthesized, they must fold into a unique shape to function properly. Unstructured proteins, according to biological orthodoxy, are pathological. Recent studies, however, are showing otherwise, as A. Keith Dunker and Richard W. Kriwacki explain in the April issue of Scientific American . In fact, remaining unfolded is crucial for proteins such as p27. In this computer simulation, p27 is seen continuously morphing under the action of brownian motion (collision with water molecules, not shown) and of its own thermal vibrations. [More]         Q+A-Japan's nuclear owner aims for shutdown of reactors April 18, 2011 at 8:59 AM   By Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO, April 18 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co [More]         The Orderly Chaos of Proteins (preview) April 18, 2011 at 8:00 AM   Proteins are the stuff of life. They are the eyes, arms and legs of living cells. Even DNA, the most iconic of all molecules in biology, is important first and foremost because it contains the genes that specify the makeup of proteins. And the cells in our body differ from one another--serving as neurons, white blood cells, smell sensors, and so on--largely because they activate different sets of genes and thus produce different mixtures of proteins. Given these molecules’ importance, one would think biologists would have long figured out the basic picture of what they look like and how they work. Yet for decades scientists embraced a picture that was incomplete. They understood, quite properly, that proteins consist of amino acids linked together like beads on a string. But they were convinced that for a protein to function correctly, its amino acid chain first had to fold into a precise, rigid configuration. Now, however, it is becoming clear that a host of proteins carry out their biological tasks without ever completely folding; others fold only as needed. In fact, perhaps as many as one third of all human proteins are “intrinsically disordered,” having at least some unfolded, or disordered, parts. [More]         Tornadoes pummel Southern U.S., 43 dead April 18, 2011 at 4:21 AM   * Catastrophic damage in North Carolina - governor * Two nuclear reactors in Virginia shut down Saturday [More]         Scientists want climate change early-warning system April 18, 2011 at 3:30 AM   By Gerard Wynn LONDON (Reuters) - A better monitoring network for greenhouses gases is needed to warn of significant changes and to keep countries that have agreed to cut their emissions honest, scientists said in papers published Monday. [More]         Our Uhs and Ums May Help Children Learn Language April 17, 2011 at 9:00 PM     [More]         Our Uhs And Ums May Help Children Learn Language April 17, 2011 at 9:00 PM   [More]         Can Taxes Be Green? April 17, 2011 at 5:00 PM   Pollution is cheap, for the polluter. Releasing sulfurous fumes into the air or dumping radioactive water into the ocean is ostensibly the easiest and cheapest way to deal with unwanted byproducts. The current solution to pollution is generally dilution. [More]         Q&A: Japan's nuclear owner aims for shutdown of reactors April 17, 2011 at 3:55 PM   TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi [More]         Electronic health records face human hurdles more than technological ones April 17, 2011 at 12:35 AM   PHILADELPHIA--In medicine, there's the patient and there's the chart. And the chart is paper. [More]             This email was sent to hafecktor@gmail.com. Delivered by Feed My Inbox PO Box 682532 Franklin, TN 37068 Create Account Unsubscribe Here