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Astrobiologists Ponder Possibility of Early 'Alien' Microbes

Sat, 03 May 2008 15:53:14 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

One of the great unsolved mysteries of science is the origin of life. How did it happen?

If we were able to click on Google Earth and visit the Earth during the Archean Eon, we would likely not recognize it is the same planet we inhabit today. The atmosphere was a reducing atmosphere of methane, ammonia, and other gases which would be toxic to most life. Also during this time, the Earth's crust cooled enough that rocks and continental plates began to form.

It was early in the Archean that life first appeared on Earth. Our oldest fossils date to roughly 3.5 billion years ago, and consist of bacteria microfossils. In fact, all life during the more than one billion years of the Archean was bacterial.

Through most of the 20th century, scientists thought that life began with a stupendous chemical fluke, unique in the observable universe.

Tags: science

Do different cells in our nose respond to different smells?

Sat, 03 May 2008 15:31:18 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: 400 odor receptors are far too many when teenagers are around.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

People can smell thousands—perhaps even millions—of different scents. Yet scientists know that in the nose, there are only about 400 different types of odor receptors—proteins that capture scented molecules so that smells can be identified. Thus, there isn’t, obviously, one type of receptor that responds to a rose, while another jumps for jasmine.

So how can we smell so much, with so few types of receptors?

The answer is that cells mix and match. Each nerve cell in the nose can sense more than one odor, but picks up the smell to a different degree. An odor's unique signature depends on which cells respond to it, and how intensely.

What happens when you inhale a rose is that a group of cells is stimulated, and that group sends a combination of signals to the olfactory bulb—the site at the very front of the brain where smell perception takes place. This unique combination of signals tells the brain the odor is the smell of a rose.

Tags: medical, science

Trends In Heart Mortality Reversing In Younger Women

Sat, 03 May 2008 14:57:29 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (May 3, 2008) — Coronary heart disease mortality in younger women could be on the rise, according to findings in the open access journal, BMC Public Health, published by BioMed Central. High levels of smoking, increasing obesity and a lack of exercise could all be contributing to this disturbing trend, seen in women under the age of 50.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause of death in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. It occurs when the arteries supplying blood to the heart narrow, and includes disorders such as heart attacks and angina.

Steven Allender from the University of Oxford and colleagues from the University of Liverpool, UK studied information on all deaths in England and Wales between 1931 and 2005. They examined how CHD mortality rates had changed over time, for different sexes and age groups.

Tags: medical

Spacecraft to the Sun

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:29:57 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: I know, I know - if they send it at night it won't need all the protection.

Clip Source: www.astronomy.com

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is sending a spacecraft closer to the Sun than any probe has ever gone — and what it finds could revolutionize what we know about our star and the solar wind that influences everything in our solar system.

NASA has tapped APL to develop the ambitious Solar Probe mission, which will study the streams of charged particles the Sun hurls into space from a vantage point within the Sun's corona — its outer atmosphere — where the processes that heat the corona and produce solar wind occur. At closest approach Solar Probe would zip past the Sun at 125 miles per second, protected by a carbon-composite heat shield that must withstand up to 2,600° F and survive blasts of radiation and energized dust at levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft.

Tags: science

New Kind of Star Discovered in Big Dipper

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:30:43 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Dinstinctive Pulse

May 2, 2008 -- Astronomers have spotted a new type of stripped-down white dwarf star with a pulsating carbon surface. The new and so far unique white dwarf was predicted to exist somewhere in the cosmos, but was found only because of some massive surveys of the sky.

"They're extremely rare," said astronomer Kurtis Williams of the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, where the discovery was made. "It's a real needle in a haystack to find one."

The white dwarf star they discovered is 800 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major -- a.k.a. the Big Dipper. Its light wavers by almost 2 percent every eight minutes.

Like other white dwarfs, this new star is the remnant of a star which, in its youth, was probably a bright shining star no more than nine times the mass of the sun. In other words, it was neither exceptionally large nor small as stars go.

Tags: science

How Schizophrenia Works

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:24:05 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Either of you can read it. (Sorry, bad taste that.)

Clip Source: health.howstuffworks.com

How Schizophrenia Works

Inside This Article

Introduction to How Schizophrenia Works

Schizophrenia Symptoms and Types

Living with Schizophrenia

Causes of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Treatment

Lots More Information

See all Diseases and Conditions articles

Schizophrenics experience a disconnect with reality.

History suggests that schizophrenia has probably been plaguing people and throwing them into social isolation for millennia. Despite the vast amounts of research, the disorder, characterized by bizarre behavior and emotional withdrawal, remains largely a mystery. As many as 24 million people worldwide and about 1 percent of the American population 18 and up have schizophrenia [source: WHO, NIMH]. About 10 percent of those with the disorder end their own lives [source: NIMH]. Schizophrenics often experience delusions, hallucinations, social and emotional withdrawal and unexplainable behavior.

Tags: medical

China renews Dalai Lama criticism

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:46:55 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Could a parallel with the treatment Ahmadinejad received when he visited America?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Chinese state media has renewed its criticism of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as two of his envoys prepare to meet Chinese officials.

The Tibet Daily repeated accusations that the Dalai Lama had masterminded anti-Chinese riots in Tibet in March. This is a charge he denies.

The Tibetan government-in-exile said his envoys would convey his suggestions for bringing peace to Tibet.

Sunday's talks will be the first such contact since the protests.

Western governments have been pressing China to renew dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

There have been six meetings between China and the Dalai Lama's envoys since 2002, but no breakthrough.

The Tibetan envoys "will convey His Holiness the Dalai Lama's deep concerns about the Chinese authorities' handling of the situation and also provide suggestions to bring peace to the region," a statement from the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala, India, said.

Tags: politics

Oxygen-Poor Ocean Zones Are Growing

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:23:18 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Linked to global warming, these areas of the Pacific and Atlantic cannot sustain most marine life, a new study warns.

Oxygen-starved waters are expanding in the Pacific and Atlantic as ocean temperatures increase with global warming, threatening fisheries and other marine life, a study published today concludes.

Most of these zones remain hundreds of feet below the surface, but they are beginning to spill onto the relatively shallow continental shelf off the coast of California and are nearing the surface off Peru, driving away fish from commercially important fishing grounds, researchers have found.

The low-oxygen, or hypoxic, zones may also be connected to the Pacific coast invasion of the Humboldt, or jumbo, squid. These voracious predators, which can grow 6 feet long, appear to be taking advantage of their tolerance for oxygen-poor waters to escape predators and devour local fish, another team of scientists theorizes.

Tags: more, weirdness