10 Questions Shaping 21st-century Earth Science Identified
Ten questions driving the geological and planetary sciences were identified today in a new report by the National Research Council. Aimed at reflecting the major scientific issues facing earth science at the start of the 21st century, the questions represent where the field stands, how it arrived at this point, and where it may be headed.”With all the advancements over the last 20 years, we can now get a better picture of Earth by looking at it from micro- to macro-perspectives, such as discerning individual atoms in minerals or watching continents drift and mountains grow,” said Donald J. DePaolo, professor of geochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “To keep the field moving forward, we have to look to the past and ask deeper fundamental questions, about the origins of the Earth and life, the structure and dynamics of planets, and the connections between life and climate, for example.”
The report was requested by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, and NASA. The committee selected the question topics, without regard to agency-specific issues, and covered a variety of spatial scales — subatomic to planetary — and temporal scales — from the past to the present and beyond.
Popularity: 52% [?]
March 12, 2008 | Filed Under Geology | Leave a CommentHow Brain Learns to Estimate Risk
Researchers from EPFL and Caltech have made an important neurobiological discovery of how humans learn to predict risk. The research, appearing in the March 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, will shed light on why certain kinds of risk, notably financial risk, are often underestimated, and whether abnormal behavior such as addiction (e.g. to gambling or drugs) could be caused by an erroneous evaluation of risk.
Planning entails making predictions. In an uncertain environment, however, our predictions often don’t pan out. And erroneous prediction of risk often leads to unusual behaviour: euphoria or excessive gambling when risk is underestimated, and panic attacks or depression when we predict that things are riskier than they really are.
Popularity: 12% [?]
March 12, 2008 | Filed Under Biology | Leave a CommentBigger Brains are Better
There’s new evidence supporting the idea that bigger brains are better. A study of a tropical wasp suggests that the brainpower required to be dominant drives brain capacity.
University of Washington researchers have found that key processing regions in the brains of both males and females of one wasp species not only increased in size with age but were also associated with being dominant. The study also showed different patterns of brain development in males and females. Certain subregions were larger in males and others were larger in females. This matched expectations based on males’ greater use of vision and females’ greater reliance on their antennae.
Popularity: 19% [?]
March 12, 2008 | Filed Under Biology | Leave a CommentA Startling Discovery on Photosynthesis
A startling discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution puts a new twist on photosynthesis, arguably the most important biological process on Earth. Photosynthesis by plants, algae, and some bacteria supports nearly all living things by producing food from sunlight, and in the process these organisms release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide.
But two studies by Arthur Grossman and colleagues reported in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta and Limnology and Oceanography suggest that certain marine microorganisms have evolved a way to break the rules—they get a significant proportion of their energy without a net release of oxygen or uptake of carbon dioxide. This discovery impacts not only scientists’ basic understanding of photosynthesis, but importantly, it may also impact how microorganisms in the oceans affect rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
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March 12, 2008 | Filed Under Biology | Leave a CommentHow Peruvian Meteorite Made It to Earth
It made news around the world: On Sept. 15, 2007, an object hurtled through the sky and crashed into the Peruvian countryside. Scientists dispatched to the site near the village of Carancas found a gaping hole in the ground.
Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and an expert in extraterrestrial impacts, went to Peru to learn more. For the first time, he will present findings from his travels at the 39th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in League City, Texas, in a talk scheduled for 2 p.m. on March 11, 2008. Brown graduate student Robert “Scott” Harris collaborated on the research, joined by Jose Ishitsuka, a Peruvian astrophysicist, and Gonzalo Tancredi, an astronomer from Uruguay.
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March 12, 2008 | Filed Under Geology | Leave a CommentA Car That Thinks Intelligently and Protects Its Occupants
A car body that thinks intelligently and protects its occupants at the crucial moment has been every driver’s dream for a long time. Research scientists in an EU project have developed an intelligent side-impact protection system that dramatically reduces the risk of injury.
One more second until collision. The cameras integrated in the doors have long identified the car that will cause the accident. Radar sensors in the car wings measure how far away the other car still is. 200 milliseconds before the crash, the new side-impact protection system is activated. The occupants are reliably protected at the crucial moment.
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March 11, 2008 | Filed Under Technology | Leave a CommentAnt World is Riddled with Cheating and Corruption
Far from being a model of social co-operation, the ant world is riddled with cheating and corruption – and it goes all the way to the top, according to scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Copenhagen.
Ants have always been thought to work together for the benefit of the colony rather than for individual gain. But Dr Bill Hughes from Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Sciences has found evidence to shatter this illusion.
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March 11, 2008 | Filed Under Biology | Leave a CommentMystery Behind the Strongest Creature in the World
The strongest creature in the world, the Hercules Beetle, has a colour-changing trick that scientists have long sought to understand. Research published today, Tuesday, 11 March, in the New Journal of Physics, details an investigation into the structure of the specie’s peculiar protective shell which could aid design of ‘intelligent materials’.
The Hercules Beetle is remarkable, not only for its strength, able to carry up to 850 times its own weight, the protective outgrowth of the insects’ exoskeleton, aka its shell, also changes from green to black as its surrounding atmosphere gets more humid.
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March 11, 2008 | Filed Under Biology | Leave a CommentLife Expectancy Rises for the Educated
It’s no secret that over the last few decades, life expectancy in the United States has been rising. However, recent data shows that not everyone has benefited from this encouraging trend. New findings from Harvard Medical School and Harvard University demonstrate that individuals with more than 12 years of education have significantly longer life expectancy than those who never went beyond high school.
“We like to think that as we as a country get healthier, everyone benefits,” says David Cutler, dean for social sciences at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and study co-author. “Here we’ve found that you can have a rising tide that only lifts half the boats—and the ones lifted are the ones doing better to begin with.”
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March 11, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentScientists Design Molecule-size Machine
Japanese scientists have designed a machine just a few molecules large that mimics how the brain works. It could one day act as a remote control for groups of nano-machines.
The molecular device - just 2 billionths of a metre across - was able to control 8 of the microscopic machines at the same time.
Popularity: 14% [?]
March 11, 2008 | Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment
