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A Dead Man's Eyes Hold the Key to His Age

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:52:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Proteins in the eye offer a new means of identifying corpses.

After the 2004 tsunami smashed into South Asia, thousands of the dead awaited identification for weeks and even months. The more time passed, the harder it became to identify the victims, let alone determine their age.

In the wake of a similar catastrophe, however, a new technique may help us learn victims' ages by analyzing the crystalline proteins in their eyes. The proteins form in the lens of the eye during the first two years of life, remaining unchanged thereafter. For anyone born in the last six decades, moreover, the lens proteins carry a radioactive marker—a special signature reflecting the pattern of nuclear bomb tests starting in 1955 and declining at an exponential rate since 1963.

"We're always on the lookout for methods of improving our ways to identify corpses," says Niels Lynnerup, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Copenhagen, who developed the technique based on levels of carbon-14.

Tags: proteins, eyes

Think about it

Tue, 13 May 2008 10:33:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.scienceblogs.com

Tags: humor

Plants Can Control Weather

Tue, 13 May 2008 10:25:17 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Gone are the days of believing plants are just passive organisms. Earlier this year, researchers found that plants can communicate through little understood chemical mechanisms. Now scientists are even saying that plants can do something perhaps even more incredible: Control the weather. According to researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science and the University of Manchester, brown seaweed, kelp, has the ability to create cloudy days at the seaside. But why would plants want to alter weather patterns? Apparently, because cloudy days make the plants more comfortable.

When the sky is overcast kelp are comfortable when the tide goes out, since they are able to stay moist until it comes back. On a bright day however, they dry out. When they start getting dry the plants become stressed and begin releasing iodide. The iodide rises, causing clouds to form overhead, which in turns protects the kelp from unwelcome sunshine.

Tags: plants, weather, kelp

Africa Launches Search for the Next Einstein

Tue, 13 May 2008 09:31:48 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Apart from an African Einstein, we want to find the African Bill Gates and the Sergey Brins and Larry Pages of the future,”

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Stephen Hawking, who has devoted his career to discovering the origins of the universe, has made the journey to South Africa to join some of the world’s leading high-tech entrepreneurs and scientists who have backed the £75m plan to create Africa’s first postgraduate centers for advanced maths and physics, after the British government declined to provide funding.

“The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,” said Hawking.

Hawking will be joined by eminent physicists and mathematicians including two Nobel laureates in physics, David Gross and George Smoot, and Michael Griffin, the head of Nasa.

Neil Turok, founder of the project and professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, where he is a close colleague of Hawking, said the aim of the centres was to “unlock and nurture scientific talent” across Africa.

Tags: africa, einstein, talent