Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

From Yahoo News Science

1 Evolution war still rages 200 years after Darwin’s birth

By Robert S. Boyd, McClatchy Newspapers

Mon Jan 26, 11:55 am ET

WASHINGTON – Two centuries after Charles Darwin’s birth on Feb. 12, 1809 , people still argue passionately about his theory of evolution.

Was Darwin right? Should schoolchildren be exposed to contrary views in science class? These two controversies continue to rage, partly because both sides are evenly matched.

Most scientists and courts that have ruled on the matter say that overwhelming evidence backs Darwin’s explanation of the origin and evolution of species, including humans, by natural selection.

2 Scientists Zero In on Earth’s Original Animal

Robin Lloyd, LiveScience Senior Editor

Mon Jan 26, 10:25 pm ET

Sea sponges have been thought by some scientists to be the most primitive living animals, the closest living things to approximate Earth’s original animal, down at the base of the tree of life for the animal kingdom.

But the squishy things are now being pushed aside by a group of amoeba-shaped creatures called Placozoans, according to a new analysis which shows the fairly simple but still multi-cellular animals are closer to the base of the tree, researchers say.

A weirder result follows from the fact that the analysis finds that corals, jellyfish, sponges, comb jellies and Placozoans (aka the “lower” animals) evolved in parallel to “higher” animals including flatworms, insects, mollusks and chordates (which includes all animals with backbones, ranging from frogs to apes and humans).

3 Triceratops Horns Used in Battle

Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer LiveScience.com

Tue Jan 27, 8:10 pm ET

About 100 million years ago, Triceratops likely engaged in horn-to-horn battles with its kin, according to a new analysis of the scrapes, bruises and healing fractures preserved on fossils of the dinosaurs’ bony headgear.

“Paleontologists have debated the function of the bizarre skulls of horned dinosaurs for years now,” said lead study researcher Andrew Farke, curator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in California. “Some speculated that the horns were for showing off to other dinosaurs, and others thought that the horns had to have been used in combat against other horned dinosaurs. Unfortunately, we can’t just go and watch a Triceratops in the wild.”

Past research has also suggested Triceratops’ horns served as a means of communication and species recognition.

4 Space Station Astronauts Lose Bone Strength Fast

Tariq Malik, Senior Editor SPACE.com

Mon Jan 26, 2:47 pm ET

Astronauts that spend long months aboard the International Space Station lose bone strength faster than previously thought and have a higher risk of breaking their hips later in life, a new study reports.

A survey of 13 space station astronauts found that their bone strength dipped by at least 14 percent on the average during their half-year stays aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Three of the astronauts lost up to 30 percent of their bone strength during their long-duration spaceflights, putting them on par with the bone strength of older women with osteoporosis on Earth, the study reported.

5 3D Modeling Shakes Up Planet-Formation Theory

Jeremy Hsu, Special to SPACE.com

Tue Jan 27, 1:46 pm ET

Gas-rich planets such as Jupiter and Saturn grew from a disk of dust and gas which eventually crumpled like a piece of paper under its own gravitational instability — or so one theory goes.

Now a computer simulation suggests that this idea falls apart under the turbulent forces within early protoplanetary systems.

The old, favored theory relies on the protoplanetary dust disk becoming denser and thinner until it reaches a tipping point, where it becomes gravitationally unstable and collapses into kilometer-sized building blocks that form the basis for gas giants. But 3D modeling has shown for the first time that turbulence prevents the dust from settling into the dense disk necessary for gravitational instability to work.

6 Cassini Team Pushes for 7-Year Extended Mission at Saturn

Debra Werner, Space News Correspondent SPACE.com

Tue Jan 27, 4:04 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – As NASA scientists continue to report startling discoveries made during the Cassini spacecraft’s initial tour of Saturn, a plan is being drafted that would extend the mission through 2017.

Funding for the Cassini program is scheduled to end Sept. 30, 2010. However, the spacecraft remains in good shape and could continue to return valuable data for years to come, scientists say, provided NASA approves the necessary funding to extend Cassini’s tour. Mission officials are preparing to present their case for a seven-year extension to NASA headquarters next month.

“The things that is magic about seven more years is that Saturn will reach its northern hemisphere’s summer solstice,” said Robert Mitchell, Cassini program manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “When we arrived in June 2004, it was a little ways past the southern hemisphere’s summer solstice. If we could go seven more years, we would see nearly half of Saturn’s orbit.”

7 Japan in talks on whaling compromise: official

AFP

Mon Jan 26, 1:33 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Members of the international whale body are negotiating a compromise to let Japan hunt whales near its shores in exchange for cutting back its Antarctic hunts, an official said Monday.

William Hogarth, the chairman of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and US delegate to the body, told Sunday’s Washington Post that he had made the proposal in closed-door weekend talks in Hawaii.

Japan would be allowed to hunt whales near its shores in return for scaling back its Antarctic expeditions in the name of research which have infuriated Australia and New Zealand, the newspaper said.

8 Australia rejects whaling compromise

AFP

Mon Jan 26, 9:32 pm ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia rejects an international compromise that would allow Japan to kill more whales near its shores in exchange for limiting its Antarctic hunts, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Tuesday.

“The government does not share this position that’s being advanced,” Garrett told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

International Whaling Commission (IWC) chairman William Hogarth reportedly raised the trade-off idea in closed-door talks with other member nations ahead of a meeting of the commision due in March.

9 Germany OKs Atlantic global warming experiment

AFP

Mon Jan 26, 1:34 pm ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany dropped its opposition Monday to a controversial experiment to dump iron sulphate in the South Atlantic to see if it can absorb greenhouse gases and possibly help to halt global warming.

“After a study of expert reports, I am convinced there are no scientific or legal objections against the … ocean research experiment LOHAFEX,” Research Minister Annette Schavan said in a statement.

Berlin had previously been cool to the expedition which set sail from Cape Town in South Africa on January 7 and is poised to drop six tonnes of the dissolved iron over 300 square kilometres (115 square miles) of ocean.

10 Global warming could unleash ocean ‘dead zones’: study

AFP

Sun Jan 25, 7:27 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Global warming may create “dead zones” in the ocean that would be devoid of fish and seafood and endure for up to two millennia, according to a study published on Sunday.

Its authors say deep cuts in the world’s carbon emissions are needed to brake a trend capable of wrecking the marine ecosystem and depriving future generations of the harvest of the seas.

In a study published online by the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists in Denmark built a computer model to simulate climate change over the next 100,000 years.

11 Oil spill in Russian Far East kills hundreds of birds: reports

AFP

Mon Jan 26, 10:03 am ET

MOSCOW (AFP) – A fuel oil spill off Russia’s far eastern island of Sakhalin has killed hundreds of birds in a wildlife area of international importance, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

“Hundreds of birds have been killed, including ducks, guillemots and divers,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the head of the Sakhalin diving centre Vladimir Bardin as saying.

“The shore is covered for three kilometres (two miles) with birds stuck in the fuel oil. The local population are trying to rescue the birds that are still alive and wash them,” he said.

12 Obama to world: We will lead on climate change

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

Mon Jan 26, 5:06 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama Monday vowed to lead the world on climate change as he set about shredding Bush administration policies with new domestic measures to force the development of fuel-efficient cars.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile picked a veteran of the Kyoto Protocol talks as her envoy for climate change, as world leaders target a historic global warming pact this year.

“We will make it clear to the world that America is ready to lead,” Obama said, in an apparent swipe at former president George W. Bush’s reluctance to take control of international efforts to combat climate change.

13 Humans adapting to climate change help mosquitoes spread disease

AFP

Tue Jan 27, 10:39 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – Humans adjusting to water shortages caused by global warming could help a dengue fever-carrying mosquito expand into new parts of Australia, according to a study released Tuesday.

People hoarding water in ever-more parched swathes of the country already affected by climate change inadvertently create perfect breeding grounds for the potentially deadly insects, the study found.

Once confined to Africa, Aedes aegypti also carries viruses that cause yellow fever and the painful joint inflammation called chikungunya, and is today found throughout the tropics.

14 Plan unveiled for electric car charging network in Denmark (AFP)

AFP

Posted on Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:55PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – California-based Better Place and Denmark utility operator DONG Energy said Tuesday they will build a charging network so the nation’s motorists can switch to electric cars.

Dong and the Palo Alto-based startup said they have signed a deal aimed at cutting the amount of Earth-warming carbon gas emissions by giving Danes access to environmentally-friendly electric vehicles “at attractive prices.”

Better Place is to make available battery-powered electric vehicles offering “at least the same road-holding qualities as fuel-based cars” by the year 2011.

15 Even in war zone, wild gorillas go forth and multiply

AFP

Tue Jan 27, 8:49 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – Mountain gorillas living in a war-torn region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have increased in number despite the bloody conflict, according to a new count released Tuesday.

The census — the first since specialised rangers were expelled by rebel forces from the Virunga National Park 16 months ago — showed a sub-population of gorillas used to humans had gone up from 72 to 81.

These so-called “habituated” gorillas are most at risk of being killed because they do not fear people.

16 EU welcomes Obama climate vow

AFP

Tue Jan 27, 11:24 am ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union presidency on Tuesday welcomed US President Barack Obama’s vow to lead the world in tackling climate change, as the EU prepared to unveil its own environmental action plan.

“Europe has gained a strong partner,” said Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

“Barack Obama is quickly implementing what he has promised. He acts efficiently,” he added.

17 Global warming ‘irreversible’ for next 1000 years: study

AFP

Tue Jan 27, 8:23 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Climate change is “largely irreversible” for the next 1,000 years even if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be abruptly halted, according to a new study led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The study’s authors said there was “no going back” after the report showed that changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are “largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after CO2 emissions are completely stopped.”

NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon said the study, published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, showed that current human choices on carbon dioxide emissions are set to “irreversibly change the planet.”

18 French ship faces green protest in Britain, after India

by Elodie Mazein

Tue Jan 27, 10:29 am ET

HARTLEPOOL, England (AFP) – Local green campaigners in Britain are protesting the imminent arrival of an asbestos-tainted French aircraft carrier here, where it is to be dismantled after being rejected by India.

But others argue the task of taking apart the Clemenceau will provide much-needed work, at a time when jobs are being cut across the country due to the global slowdown.

The ageing carrier, a former flagship of the French navy now known simply as hull Q790, could be towed within the next week to Hartlepool, in northern England, where British shipbreakers Able UK plan to finally dismantle it.

19 Iceland raises whaling quota to allow 300 kills a year

AFP

Tue Jan 27, 3:27 pm ET

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland’s government unveiled Tuesday a steep rise in its disputed commercial whale hunt, a sixfold increase allowing the killing of 150 fin whales and up to 150 minke whales a year.

Iceland, which pulled out of an international whaling moratorium in 2006 after observing it for 16 years, had a quota of nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.

But outgoing Fisheries Minister Einar Gudfinnsson said the government would follow the recommendations of the Marine Research Institute, which suggested a quota of 150 fin whales and 100 to 150 minke whales a year over the next five years.

20 Southern Australia wilts as worst heatwave in a century hits

AFP

2 hrs 55 mins ago

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Emergency services have gone to high alert in southeast Australia as the region’s worst heatwave in a century sent temperatures soaring and residents scurrying for cover.

Authorities warned elderly, sick and infant residents of the states of Victoria and South Australia to stay home and keep cool as the mercury was tipped to hit 44 degrees Celsius (112 Fahrenheit), raising the spectre of heatstroke and wildfires.

The heatwave in Victoria, which was expected to last several days and be the region’s worst since 1908, raised fears of heat-related deaths and wildfires following years of drought, authorities said.

21 Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup

AFP

Tue Jan 27, 1:15 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Many common foods made using commercial high fructose corn syrup contain mercury as well, researchers reported on Tuesday, while another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.

Food processors and the corn syrup industry group attacked the findings as flawed and outdated, but the researchers said it was important for people to know about any potential sources of the toxic metal in their food.

In one study, published in the journal Environmental Health, former Food and Drug Administration scientist Renee Dufault and colleagues tested 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup and found detectable mercury in nine of the 20 samples.

22 Plastic chemical may stay in body longer: study

By Will Dunham, Reuters

Wed Jan 28, 12:21 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A controversial chemical used in many plastic products may remain in the body longer than previously thought, and people may be ingesting it from sources other than food, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December said it planned more research into the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, but the agency indicated no immediate plans to curb the chemical, found in baby bottles and other products.

Dr. Richard Stahlhut of the University of Rochester and colleagues looked at levels of the chemical in the urine of 1,469 U.S. adults who took part in a government health survey.

23 New science could help solve climate crisis

By Michael Szabo, AFP

Tue Jan 27, 7:52 pm ET

LONDON (Reuters) – A new science that seeks to fight climate change using methods like giant space mirrors might not work on its own, but when combined with cuts in greenhouse gases it may help reverse global warming, a research report said.

In the report published on Wednesday, researchers at Britain’s University of East Anglia assessed the climate cooling potential of “geoengineering” schemes that also include pumping aerosol into the atmosphere and fertilizing the oceans with nutrients.

“We found that some geoengineering options could usefully complement mitigation, and together they could cool the climate, but geoengineering alone cannot solve the climate problem,” said Professor Tim Lenton, the report’s lead author.

24 Rare 1,800-year-old figurine found in Jerusalem

By KAREN ZOLKA, Associated Press Writer

Wed Jan 28, 12:02 am ET

JERUSALEM – An 1,800-year-old figurine believed to have originated from the eastern stretches of the Roman Empire has been discovered by archaeologists outside the walls of the old city, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said. The 2-inch marble bust depicts the head of a man with a short curly beard and almond-shaped eyes who may portray a boxer, the authority said.

“The high level of finish on the figurine is extraordinary, while meticulously adhering to the tiniest of details,” Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, directors of the excavation, said in a joint statement released Monday. Nothing similar has ever been uncovered in Israel, they said, calling it a “unique find.”

Carved from pale yellow marble, archeologists think the figurine was most likely carried to Jerusalem by a merchant.

2 comments

  1. Looks like another News Special Friday morning.

    • Robyn on January 28, 2009 at 14:38

    These two controversies continue to rage, partly because both sides are evenly matched.

    Science on the one hand, fairy dust on the other.  

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