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Amazon Drought reduces Carbon Sinks

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:50:04 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Drought is killing off trees in Brazil's fragile Amazon rainforest and depleting the region's carbon reservoirs - an ecological double-whammy with devastating implications, according to a new study.

The Amazon's lush vegetation in a typical year absorbs nearly two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

But a 30-year study published by the journal Science found that the world's largest tropical rain forest is surprisingly sensitive to drought, and that the resulting loss of vegetation will have a greater-than-anticipated effect in causing a sharp spike in greenhouse gases.

The Amazon tree canopy, which absorbs massive amounts of greenhouse gases, often succumbs to the effects of dryness, thereby accelerating global warming by not absorbing CO2, say scientists.

Drought also accelerates the depletion of the region's carbon sinks, natural reservoirs that accumulate and store the chemical compound for an indefinite period.

Lunar Cycle affects Cyclone strength

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:45:16 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Known as Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones, depending on the location Scientists have noticed the pattern, but are yet to discover the mechanism behind the variations

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Michael Reilly

Cyclones strengthen more often under a new moon than at any other time, according to a US study.

Palm trees blowing on Yeppoon's foreshore as Cyclone Hamish threatens the Capricorn Coast

From fertility to suicide, most phenomena attributed to the moon are almost exclusively superstition.

But Associate Professor Peter Yaukey of the University of New Orleans has found what he thinks is real evidence that the phase of moon drives cyclone behaviour - known as hurricanes in North America and typhoons in Asia.

Storms that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean between 1950 and 2007 were more likely to form right after the new moon. They also intensified 49% more often after a new moon than at any other time in the 29.5-day lunar cycle.

Explanations for why this is are many, but nothing conclusive has been shown.

There are a range of possibilities. Just as the moon pulls on earth's oceans and creates the tides, it also tugs on the air above it.

Shells 'thinning due to fossil fuels

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:38:31 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Organisms the size of sand grains are helping scientists to document the problem of ocean acidification

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Anna Salleh

The shells of tiny single-celled organisms in the Southern Oceans are thinning due to acid-forming carbon dioxide being absorbed by oceans, new research has found.

Organisms the size of sand grains are helping scientists to document the problem of ocean acidification (Source: ACE CRC)

Dr Will Howard of the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and colleagues report their findings today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

"The ocean is currently taking up somewhere in the neighbourhood of a third of our fossil fuel emissions," says Howard, a palaeo-climatologist.

Scientists have predicted this absorption of carbon dioxide would boost the acidity of oceans and interfere with the ability of some marine species to build their shells.

"It was predicted and now we're seeing it," says Howard. "This is not an issue for the future any more. This is an issue for now."

Scientist calls for robot ethics rules

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:39:39 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Ethics guidelines are urgently needed to control the growing use of robots in caring for children and the elderly, says one UK robotics expert.

Professor Noel Sharkey, of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield, makes his case in today's issue of the journal Science.

Sharkey argues that the steady increase in the use of robots in day-to-day life poses unanticipated risks and ethical problems.

In particular he worries about the impact of long-term exposure of "vulnerable" groups such as children and the elderly to "personal care" robots.

"There are already at least 14 companies in Japan and South Korea that have developed child care robots," says Sharkey.

"The question here is, will this lead to neglect and social exclusion?"

Sharkey says studies have shown that children prefer robots to a teddy bear and develop attachment to the machines.

Animal experiments suggest young monkeys left in the care of robots "became unable to deal with other monkeys and to breed

Global Methane Levels move up again

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:35:32 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

Methane levels in the atmosphere have started to rise after almost eight years of near-zero growth, an international study says.

And the increase may lead to an acceleration of global warming, the scientists behind the study warn.

Dr Paul Fraser of the CSIRO, who co-authored the study that appears in Geophysical Research Letters, says samples taken from 12 stations across a global network showed a trend upwards in methane levels.

After seven years [of zero growth] methane has started to rise again to growth rates of the early 1990s

If methane concentrations continue to grow at the current rate then it will be once again the second-most important greenhouse gas to control after CO2 over the next few decades

Fraser says methane accounts for about 20% of all greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution.

It is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and comes from sources such as natural wetlands, rice fields, fires, coal mines and natural gas reticulation.

Yawning cools the brain

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:31:01 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jennifer Viegas

If your head is overheated, there's a good chance you'll yawn, according to a new study that found the primary purpose of yawning is to control brain temperature.

The finding solves several mysteries about yawning, such as why it's most commonly done just before and after sleeping, why certain diseases lead to excessive yawning, and why breathing through the nose and cooling off the forehead often stop yawning.

The key yawn instigator appears to be brain temperature.

"Brains are like computers," says Andrew Gallup, a researcher in the Department of Biology at Binghamton University who led the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behavior.

"They operate most efficiently when cool, and physical adaptations have evolved to allow maximum cooling of the brain."

"In addition, yawning when it is extremely cold may be maladaptive, as this may send unusually cold air to the brain, which may produce a thermal shock."

Mobiles distract more than passengers

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:13:02 GMT

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Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Using a hands-free device on a mobile phone is more distracting than sitting next to a talkative passenger, say US researchers.

Their finding, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, adds to a growing body of evidence that mobile phones can make driving dangerous.

Professor Lee Strayer of the University of Utah and colleagues found in a series of experiments using driving simulators that hands-free mobile phones are just as distracting as handheld models

chatting on a mobile phone can slow the reaction times of young adult drivers to levels seen among senior citizens, and shown that drivers using mobile telephones are as impaired as drivers who are legally drunk

drivers using a hands-free device drifted out of their lanes and missed exits more frequently than drivers talking to a passenger

The difference between a mobile phone conversation and passenger conversation is due to the fact that the passenger is in the vehicle and knows what the traffic conditions are like

Wondeful images - 2000 years of human culture

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:51:38 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: Awards competition winner -Wellcome Images is one of the world's richest and most unique collections, with themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science.

Clip Source: content.clipmarks.com

Two thousand years of human culture

wellcome images
2000 years of human culture

Wellcome Images is one of the world's richest and most unique collections, with themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science.

Illness & wellness

Life

Culture

Nature

War

Wonderful

Witchcraft

Health

World

Wellcome Image Awards competition winner

Single cell giant up-ends early evolution

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:58:00 GMT

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Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Michael Reilly

Slowly rolling across the ocean floor, a humble single celled creature is poised to change our understanding of how complex life evolved on earth.

The grape-sized Gromia sphaerica, a distant relative of microscopic amoebas, had previously been discovered lying motionless at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.

these single celled critters, also known as giant deep sea protists, aren't supposed to be able to leave trails

The oldest fossils of animal trails, called 'trace fossils', date to around 580 million years ago, and palaeontologists believed they must have been made by multicellular animals with complex, symmetrical bodies.

But G. sphaerica's traces are the spitting image of the old, Precambrian fossils; two small ridges line the outside of the trail, and one thin bump runs down the middle.

says Professor Shuhai Xiao of Virginia Polytechnic Institute. "The fact that protists can make traces has important implications for how we interpret many trace fossils."

Tibetan glaciers rapidly melting

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:52:25 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The Water supply of nearly a billion people in South Asia in peril?
Rather euphemistic way of describing it.!
The effects will be devastating. A combination of drought, and Rivers that have become sewers never being purged, to say the least. There is no reason to believe that the melt will do anything but what it has continued to do so far...accelerate. Once scientists were often surprised. Now they are stunned. Why? They once had some fool idea they knew what they were talking about...but they were wrong. At least according to the reports we've had ACCESS to.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Michael Reilly

Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply.

Throughout India, China, and Nepal, some 15,000 glaciers speckle the Tibetan Plateau. There, perched in thin, frigid air up to 7200 metres above sea level, the ice might seem secluded from the effects of global warming.

But just the opposite is proving true, according to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University and a team of researchers travelled to central Himalayas in 2006 to study the Naimona'nyi glacier, expecting to find some melting.

Mountain glaciers have been receding all over the world since the 1990s and there was no reason this one, which provides water to the mighty, Indus, and Brahmaputra Rivers, should be any different.

But when the team analysed samples of glacier, what they found stunned them.

'Leaky' optic fibres full of possibilities

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:34:41 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

An Australian researcher is developing a 'leaky' optic fibre full of holes, which could see it used in applications as diverse as refrigerator lighting through to office communications.

(Source: Macquarie University )" />

Professor Graham Town, who is head of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Macquarie University, believes bubble-filled polymer could be lead to a breakthrough in the manufacture of optic fibres.

Town has developed a bubble-filled polymer fibre, which he says is cheap and energy efficient to produce.

Traditionally glass has been used to make the optical fibres, which are primarily used in long-distance communication networks.

Town has developed a cheaper and simpler polymer optic fibre that contains irregular air 'bubbles'.

Town says this bubbly material is then made into a fibre that is approximately 100 micrometres wide by drawing it down from a tower.

This leakage means light can enter as well as leave the fibre, opening up a range of commercial potentials

Father of modern astronomy found

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:23:03 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The location of the tomb of Nicolas Copernicus has been confirmed with DNA testing

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

DNA studies on two strands of hair and a tooth have ended a centuries old hunt for the tomb of 16th century astronomer Nicolas Copernicus, say experts.

The tests confirmed that remains found in Frombork Cathedral in northern Poland in 2005 are those of the man considered the father of modern astronomy, says Polish archaeologist Professor Jerzy Gassowski.

His final resting place has until now remained a mystery.

Polish, French and German researchers have tried for two centuries to find his tomb,

Coperincus shocked his contemporaries by asserting that the earth rotated on its axis once a day and travelled around the sun once a year in his pioneering work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres), published shortly before his death in 1543

Earlier beliefs based on the Ptolemaic theory put the earth at the centre of the universe, with the sun and stars revolving around it. His groundbreaking work was condemned by Pope Paul V in 1616 as contrary to scripture

'Sneaky' photos could steal your keys

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:15:05 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The program was developed to warn people?
....Yeah right ! To watch out for people using the program

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Eric Bland

US scientists have developed a software algorithm that creates a physical key based solely on a picture, regardless of angle or distance.

The project, called Sneakey, was developed to warn people about the dangers of haphazardly placing keys in the open or posting images of them online.

"People will post pictures with their credit cards but with the name and number greyed out," says Professor Stefan Savage of University of California, San Diego (UCSD), who helped develop the software. "They should have the same sensitivity with their keys."

When Savage and his students searched online photo sharing websites, such as Flickr, they found thousands of photos of keys with enough definition to replicate.

The software could also use an image captured by a mobile phone camera to snap a quick picture of stray keys on a table top.

the researchers set up a camera with a zoom lens 60 metres away from a key. Using those photos, they created a key that was 80% accurate on their first try.

Mammoth genome may explain extinction.

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:07:49 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Perhaps after the ice age, woolly mammoths just overheated? Global warming means most of the Mammoths that have been in the deep freeze for 10,000 years, will thaw out. The next species on the agenda, is Neanderthal Man.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Researchers have sequenced the gene map of a long-extinct woolly mammoth using DNA taken from its hair, but don't expect to see them brought back to life anytime soon.

The sequence shows that mammoths were more closely related to modern, living elephants than previously thought, and they found some elements, such as evidence of inbreeding, that may shed light on why the giant creatures went extinct,

"Our data suggest that mammoths and modern-day elephants separated around six million years ago, about the same time that humans and chimpanzees separated," says Penn State biologist Professor Webb Miller

Previous evidence suggests that woolly mammoths then separated into two groups around 2 million years ago, which eventually became genetically distinct. One went extinct 45,000 years ago, while another survived until 10,000 years ago.

Mammoths offer a better target than most extinct animals

many of their bodies have been frozen since death - some so thoroughly that the meat is still edible.

'Nuclear family' found in ancient grave

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:59:43 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Parents clasped the hands of their children in a 4600 year-old grave which researchers believe to be the oldest evidence discovered so far of the nuclear family in early human development, according to a new study.

The remains of 13 people believed to have been killed during a violent raid were laid out in an unusual pattern for the Neolithic period in a gravesite discovered in Germany in 2005.

Several pairs were buried face-to-face with their hands and arms interlinked in four nearby graves which researchers believed were once covered in burial mounds.

Two of the gravesites were sufficiently well-preserved to allow for DNA analysis.

In one, researchers from Britain and Australia were able to determine that the man and woman clasping the hands of two boys were indeed their parents.

"Their unity in death suggests a unity in life," writes lead author Dr Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.