Scientific American

Energy Storage on Ice

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:15:00 EST

LOS ANGELES -- Ice Energy has a novel solution for the electricity challenges of the 21st century: Make Popsicles.

Put another way, the company wants to freeze water at night in refrigerator-like boxes adjacent to commercial air conditioners and then thaw it during the day, when power demand is highest. This would theoretically allow AC-hungry commercial buildings in warm climates to cut energy use during heat waves, by shutting air conditioners down while still providing cool air to buildings from melting ice.

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How many scientists (and scientific instruments) does it take to sample seawater?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:15:00 EST

Editor's Note: Journalist and crew member Kathryn Eident and scientist Jeremy Jacquot are traveling on board the RV Atlantis on a monthlong voyage to sample and study nitrogen fixation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, among other research projects. This is the second blog post detailing this ongoing voyage of discovery for Scientific American.com.

RV ATLANTIS MAIN DECK--The winch makes a whirring sound as it slowly winds the quarter-inch galvanized wire out of the water, through the block and onto the drum. Rigged over the side of the ship, the sturdy wire extends deep below the water's surface where it is attached to a round metal frame holding plastic bottles and various sensors. [More]

Denial of global warming threat to the American pika means no protection from U.S.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:31:00 EST

Despite documented threats posed to the American pika (Ochotona princeps ) by global warming, the rapidly disappearing mammalian species will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) ruled last week. [More]

NASA Readies a Satellite to Probe the Sun--Inside and Out

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is what might be called a satellite for the information age. It is designed to provide scientists who study the sun with a torrent of data--the space agency says the observatory will return 150 million bits of data about Earth's host star per second, or about 1.5 terabytes per day. [More]

Banana bait lures trapped panda

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:31:00 EST

A hungry, lost wild giant panda prompts a long rescue operation in southwest China, before a banana attached to the end of a stick proves too hard to resist.

What Happens in the Amygdala... Damage to Brain's Decision-Making Area May Encourage Dicey Gambles

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

Imagine you've lost your job. You have some money saved, and a chance to double it with a gamble. But if you lose the bet, you'll forfeit everything. What would you do? [More]

Python Predation: Big snakes poised to change U.S. ecosystems

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

Brought to the U.S. as pets, Burmese pythons have made headlines with their uncontrolled spread in the Florida Everglades and willingness to challenge alligators for the position of top predator. A report released by the U.S. Geological Survey last fall delivered more bad news: two other constrictor species, also former pets, are thriving in the area, and six others could pose similar threats. Researchers fear that reproductive populations could spread and eat native animals into extinction.

The new interlopers--northern and southern African pythons, reticulated pythons, boa constrictors and four species of anacondas--have “ecological similarities,” explains Robert Reed, a USGS biologist and one of the authors of the report. “They are large invasive predators that native birds and mammals aren’t adapted to, and they are highly fecund, capable of producing up to 100 hatchlings in one nest.” They’re also big; some grow up to 20 feet and 200 pounds. They seize prey with their teeth and then wrap around the prey’s body, squeezing it to death.

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Distracted Customers' Wait Times Fly

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:05:08 EST

You know what it’s like. Sit chatting with a friend, and the hours can zip by. But once someone puts you on hold [audio: bad on-hold music] or makes you wait in line, each second feels interminable. But Dan Zakay of Tel Aviv University has some tricks for businesses to keep waiting customers happy. He published the psychology research in the journal NeuroQuantology . [More]

The Advantages of Being Helpless

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

At every stage of early development, human babies lag behind infants from other species. A kitten can amble across a room within moments of birth and catch its first mouse within weeks, while its wide-eyed human counterpart takes months to make her first step, and years to learn even simple tasks, such as how to tie a shoelace or skip a rope, let alone prepare a three-course meal. Yet, in the cognitive race, human babies turn out to be much like the tortoise in Aesop’s fable: emerging triumphant after a slow and steady climb to the finish. As adults, we drive fancy sports cars, leap nimbly across football fields and ballet stages, write lengthy dissertations on every conceivable subject, and launch rockets into space. We have a mastery over our selves and our environments that is peculiar to our species.

Yet, this victory seems puzzling. In the fable, the tortoise wins the race because the hare takes a nap. But, if anything, human infants nap even more than kittens! And unlike the noble tortoise, babies are helpless, and more to the point, hopeless . They could not learn the basic skills necessary to their independent survival even if they tried. How do human babies manage to turn things around in the end?

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Scientists baffled by Amazon mystery

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:31:00 EST

Aerial images show the remains of a mysterious ancient civilization in Brazil's Amazon forest.

Welcome to Atlantis and the quest for nitrogen

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:01:00 EST

Editor's Note: Journalist and crew member Kathryn Eident and scientist Jeremy Jacquot are traveling on board the RV Atlantis on a monthlong voyage to sample and study nitrogen fixation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, among other research projects. This is the first blog post detailing this ongoing voyage of discovery for Scientific American.com.

20 00.0457S x 084'59.9745W [More]

Third-hand smoke contains carcinogens too, study says

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:01:00 EST

Anyone walking into a smoker's abode can tell you that the traces of tobacco use don't vanish when a cigarette or cigar is extinguished. But just what happens to this "third-hand" smoke once the air has cleared--and can it still be harmful? [More]

City Dwellers Drive Deforestation in 21st Century

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:01:00 EST

Globally, roughly 13 million hectares of forest fall to the blade or fire each year. Such deforestation has long been driven by farmers eking out a slash-and-burn living or loggers using new roads to cut inroads into pristine forest. But now new data appears to show that, at least for the first five years of the 21st century, big block clearings that reflect industrial deforestation have come to dominate, rather than smaller-scale efforts that leave behind long, narrow swaths of cleared land. [More]

Researchers Identify Genetic Variant Linked to Faster Biological Aging

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST

There's no right answer when someone asks you: " How old do you think I am ?"

Faced with such a dilemma, most of us aim low--erring on the side of flattery rather than honesty. But the truth is, accurately guessing someone's age is a difficult task, perhaps best left to amusement park workers and street performers.

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Virus hunting in Cameroon

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:38:05 EST

Global pandemics, like swine flu, are often caused by viruses that have jumped from animals to people. Scientists in Cameroon are working with local bush meat hunters to monitor this viral transmission.

Virus hunting in Cameroon

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:38:05 EST

Serotonin May Hold Key to Halting Osteoporosis

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:37:49 EST

A drug that reverses osteoporosis in mice looks like a promising candidate for treating the human version of the disease.

Space shuttle Endeavour blasts off after one-day delay

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:45:00 EST

The fifth-to-last mission of the space shuttle program got under way early Monday, as the shuttle Endeavour rocketed up from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin a 13-day mission to the International Space Station . The orbiter launched at 4:14 A.M. (Eastern Standard Time), after a launch opportunity Sunday morning was scrapped due to cloud cover. [More]

Botoxed Face Impairs Bad Feelings

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:17:08 EST

At one time or other, someone has probably told you “it’s written all over your face.” That’s because your emotions can influence your expressions. Well, a study in the journal Psychological Science suggests that the reverse is also true: that the look on your face may influence your ability to process emotions. [More]

CERN Gears Up Its Computers for More Atom Smashing

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

A deluge of high-energy physics data is headed toward servers in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month. That's because the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) now says it plans to restart its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) soon for a run that could last as long as two years at a collision energy of seven TeV (tera–electron volts, 3.5 TeV per beam). As CERN ramps up the world's most powerful particle accelerator to operate well beyond its previous best performance , the lab's computer systems must likewise be tuned so they can properly capture and analyze all of this new output. [More]

Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales (preview)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

On a routine expedition in 1987, oceanographers in the submersible Alvin were mapping the typically barren, nutrient-poor seafloor in the Santa Catalina Basin, off the shore of southern California. On the final dive of the trip, the scanning sonar detected a large object on the seafloor. Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1,240 meters, Alvin ’s headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried in sediment. On reviewing the dive videotapes, expedition leader Craig Smith and his team saw that the skeleton was probably either a blue or a fin whale. The creature appeared to have been dead for years, but the bones and their surroundings teemed with life--wriggling worms, centimeter-size clams, little snails and limpets, and patches of white microbial mats. The skeleton was a thriving oasis in a vast, desertlike expanse.

Almost a year later Smith, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, returned for a proper study of the skeleton site. His team described several species previously unknown to science, plus some that had been observed only in unusual environments, such as at deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

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Fewer than 50 wild tigers left in China: expert

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:25:00 EST

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has an estimated 50 or fewer tigers left living in the wild, but efforts to stabilize one population in the bleak northeast are starting to pay off, a conservationist said on Monday.

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Street Smarts: The BioBus Brings a Rolling Science Lab to Resource-Strapped Schools

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

It's halfway through first period, and 10th-grade students at Frances Perkins Academy in Brooklyn are in science class--not in school, but on a specially outfitted bus parked outside. [More]

Moving forward with electronic health records

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST

NEW YORK--Almost a year since President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which earmarked some $19 billion to get electronic health records off the ground, most of the country's medical and research institutions are still primarily pushing paper. [More]

Is climate change hiding the decline of maple syrup?

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:41:00 EST

By Matt Kaplan

The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil releases carbon dioxide that alters the balance of carbon isotopes naturally found in the environment--an effect that is now being found in food, reveals a US study.

Modern methods for tracking the origins of processed foods use isotopes--atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons. [More]

Delays prompt reshuffle at ITER fusion project

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:22:00 EST

By Geoff Brumfiel

In an effort to put the world's largest scientific experiment back on track after delays and cost overruns, Europe is shaking up the agency overseeing its portion of the multinational ITER reactor.

On February 16, Frank Briscoe, a British fusion scientist, will take the reins as interim director of Fusion for Energy (F4E), the agency in Barcelona, Spain, that manages Europe's ITER contribution--the largest of any partner's. [More]

Endeavour Set for Sunday Liftoff as Space Shuttle Program Winds Down

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:05:00 EST

NASA launch managers this morning cleared space shuttle Endeavour to lift off before dawn Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, one of the five remaining flights before the shuttle program concludes this year or early next. The planned launch comes less than a week after the future of human spaceflight in the U.S. was shaken by President Obama, whose budget request for fiscal year 2011, released Monday, would cancel Constellation , the planned successor to the shuttle. [More]

Ireland's failed snails: 2 species already extinct, dozens of other mollusks endangered

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:47:00 EST

Poor water quality and habitat loss are driving Ireland's terrestrial and freshwater snails, along with related species into extinction, according to new research by the National Biodiversity Data Center (NBDC), a three-year-old organization established to study that country's biodiversity. [More]

New Hubble maps show a changing Pluto

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:10:00 EST

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How Toads Conquered the World [Slide Show]

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:01:00 EST

Cane toads are seemingly innocuous enough. First imported to Australia to control a beetle pest of sugarcane fields, they are now frog-marching their way across the island continent , wreaking havoc on in situ flora and fauna. The key to their domination has been protection from would-be predators and an ability to breed fast. But how were cane toads gifted with those traits in the first place? [More]

American Pika Denied Endangered Species Status

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST

The Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected a bid to extend endangered species protection to a rabbit-like creature that environmentalists say could be pushed to extinction by rising temperatures.

The warming of the American pika's mountain habitat in California's Sierra Nevada and in parts of nine other Western states has shrunk the tiny mammal's population and could eliminate part of its range, but federal biologists say new studies suggest the pika will adjust to warmer homes or migrate to cooler areas upslope.

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Dealing with Super Bowl XLIV Pressure

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:30:08 EST

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Are Coyotes or Humans the Perpetrators of Suburban Animal Attacks?

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST

A coyote howls, its characteristically pointed muzzle aimed high toward the night sky. But the moon is not visible over this brightly lit Target store parking lot in Matamoras, Penn.--only a glowing globe atop a metal pole casting its electric illumination on the pavement. [More]

Utility to Build First Power Plant with Greenhouse Gas Emissions Limits in California

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:15:00 EST

Calpine Corp. is poised to build the first U.S. power plant with federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions in California after clearing a final regulatory hurdle today.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District granted the Houston-based utility its final air quality permit today, allowing the company to proceed with the planned construction of a 600-megawatt natural gas-fired Russell City Energy Center. The 15-acre project site is in Hayward, just east of the San Francisco Bay.

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Defusing the Methane Greenhouse Time Bomb

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

Methane trapped in Arctic ice (and elsewhere) could be rapidly released into the atmosphere as a result of global warming in a possible doomsday scenario for climate change, some scientists worry. After all, methane is 72 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timescale. But research announced at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union this December suggests that marine microbes could at least partially defeat the methane "time bomb" sitting at the bottom of the world's oceans.

The conventional wisdom for decades has been that methane emanating from the seafloor could be consumed by a special class of bacteria called methanotrophs. It has long been known, for instance, that these organisms at the bottom of the Black Sea consume methane produced in its deep oxygen-free waters.

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Genetic Doping Next Athletic Cheat

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:42:08 EST

The Vancouver Olympics begin February 12th. And scientists are on high alert. Not just for well-known ways to gain an advantage, like steroids or blood doping. The researchers are also worried about what’s called genetic doping. It’s the latest in elite athletic cheating.

Researchers writing in the journal Science point to a few different types of gene therapy that could get hijacked for athletics instead of medical uses, like the treatment of obesity, diabetes or muscle disease. For example, genes for insulin-like growth factor could enhance muscle mass. And molecules that regulate the expression of genes may make athletes more energy efficient, or help create more slow-twitch muscle fibers.

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Recommended: Gems and Gemstones

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST

Gems and Gemstones by Lance Grande and Allison Augustyn. University of Chicago Press, 2009 [More]

Readers Respond on "Squeezing More Oil from the Ground"

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

End or No End? In “ Squeezing More Oil from the Ground ,” Leonardo Maugeri, director of strategies and development of an international oil company, expresses the conventional view of his profession, assuming a world of near-infinite oil resources to be produced under market forces. Maugeri is particularly dismissive of our Scientific American article “The End of Cheap Oil” [March 1998]. It is difficult to find fault with at least its title, considering that the average price of oil over the preceding 10 years was $28 a barrel but rose to $45 over the ensuing decade to reach a peak of almost $150 in 2008.

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NSF Teams with Microsoft to Move Scientific Research into the Cloud

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:15:00 EST

Microsoft and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Thursday announced plans to offer researchers and research groups selected through the agency's merit review process free access to computer servers . Microsoft will host the computing infrastructure at its data centers, giving the researchers access to storage, computational and networking resources via the Internet for a period of three years. [More]

Prehistoric patterns: A dinosaur gets color from head to feathery tail

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:15:00 EST

Last week, researchers announced that they had been able to place, for the first time, original colors on a dinosaur --painting in striking stripes on Sinosauropteryx 's tail based on new evidence of pigment particles. Today, another team reports that they have decoded the colors of a different dino from head to tail. [More]

Open-source science takes on neglected disease

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:52:00 EST

By Declan Butler

A chemist--and social entrepreneur--in Australia is launching an open-source research project to develop a more potent form of a front-line drug against the debilitating neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis.

Matthew Todd of the University of Sydney hopes to persuade research chemists across the world to share laboratory time and expertise in a collaborative effort to find a cheap and efficient synthesis of the drug praziquantel. [More]

Wolverine No Match for Climate Change

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:00:08 EST

Forget polar bears or penguins. The charismatic megafauna suffering most from climate change may well be the wolverine--a vicious predator known for its uncanny strength and tenacity. Making it the perfect inspiration for the X-Me n superhero.

The actual wolverine's super powers extend mostly to a tolerance for Arctic chill and supersized feet to permit quicker movement on snow. Those big feet might be hurting the largest member of the weasel family as snowpack declines across much of North America.

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Athlete alert: Is genetic juicing set to replace steroids?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:58:00 EST

When Olympic medals and multi-million-dollar contracts are at stake, athletes and coaches have been known to resort to drastic measures to strike gold. But as the steroid era evolves amidst increased testing and public hectoring, what other performance booster will enter the ring? [More]

Senators seek sulfur dioxide pollution cuts

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:20:00 EST

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Thursday introduced legislation aimed at slashing emissions of sulfur dioxide, mercury and nitrogen oxide from smokestacks including coal-fired power plants.

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Scant Arctic ice could mean summer 'double whammy'

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST

* Thinner winter ice could mean more summer melting

* Arctic drives global weather

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With a little help, water can freeze as it heats up

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:01:00 EST

The Celsius scale is an elegant, simple system of measurement: water freezes at 0 degree Celsius and boils at 100 degrees C. (The actual definition of the scale is a bit more complex, involving the so-called triple point of water, but that's the general idea.) But chefs at high altitudes know that the simplicity of Celsius doesn't always hold--the higher your kitchen, the lower the boiling point of water. Similarly, water's freezing point is negotiable, with " supercooled " water able to remain liquid down to around –40 degrees , and even colder at extreme pressures. Supercooling can occur if water is so pure and is kept in such uncontaminated conditions that the molecules have nothing to interact with and crystallize around. [More]

Sperm cells' swimming secrets revealed

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:20:00 EST

The predictable swimming sperm featured in health class videos are rather uncharacteristic portraits of the life of these sex cells. [More]

Will U.S. Government Crackdown on "Greenwashing"?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:20:00 EST

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to crack down on " greenwashing " when it updates its environmental marketing guidelines for the first time since 1998.

The agency's Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims , or Green Guides, define terms such as "recyclable" and "biodegradable" and explain how businesses should back up environmental assertions. Though FTC cannot force businesses to adopt greener practices, Section 5 of the FTC Act authorizes the agency to intervene when businesses are misrepresenting their practices to clients -- in other words, turning greenwashing into fraud.

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Ghostbusters: Authors of a new study propose a strict ban on medical ghostwriting

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:45:00 EST

When students pawn someone else's work off as their own, they get expelled. But when some professors do the same thing, they get a "pat on the back," and maybe even a few extra bucks. Scientists credited for research articles that were secretly penned by ghostwriters from pharmaceutical companies often are not reprimanded for their misrepresentations; rather, their ranks and career trajectories often improve. [More]

Fixing the Broken Government Policy Process

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

The breakdown of the Washington policy process has four manifestations. First is a chronic inability to focus beyond the next election. “Shovel-ready” projects squeeze out attention to vital longer-term strategies that may require a decade or more. Second, most key decisions are made in congressional backrooms through negotiations with lobbyists, who simultaneously fund the congressional campaigns. Third, technical expertise is largely ignored or bypassed, while expert communities such as climate scientists are falsely and recklessly derided by the Wall Street Journal as a conspiratorial interest group chasing federal grants. Fourth, there is little way for the public to track and comment on complex policy proposals working their way through Congress or federal agencies.

These failings take a special toll on the challenges of sustainable development because there is no quick fix, for example, for the challenge of large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of getting long-term strategies for adopting low-carbon energy sources, upgrading the power grid, encouraging electric transportation and so on, we are getting cash for clunkers, subsidies for corn-based ethanol, and other ineffective and highly costly nonsolutions delivered by large-scale lobbying.

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