Amy Yee | Dharmasala, India | June 29

NYT - Tibetan monks and nuns spend their lives studying the inner world of the mind rather than the physical world of matter. Yet for one month this spring a group of 91 monastics devoted themselves to the corporeal realm of science.

Instead of delving into Buddhist texts on karma and emptiness, they learned about Galileo’s law of accelerated motion, chromosomes, neurons and the Big Bang, among other far-ranging topics.

Many in the group, whose ages ranged from the 20s to 40s, had never learned science and math. In Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, the curriculum has remained unchanged for centuries.

Jeffrey Kluger | June 26, 2009

TIME - If water is the elixir of life, it's no wonder that Earth — which is 70% ocean — simply teems with living things. The other planets and moons in the solar system don't have it so good. They're forbidding places that are hydrological deserts, and thus biological ones too.

That, at least, had long been the conventional wisdom, but in recent years, scientists have come to learn that by some measures, the solar system fairly sloshes with water. Mars, we now know, was once as wet as Earth and still harbors ice and perhaps liquid water. The moon is thought to have water locked in permafrost at its poles. Jupiter's moon Europa is probably home to a globe-girdling ocean beneath a thin rind of ice, and its Jovian sisters Callisto and Ganymede appear to be icy and wet too. Now, according to new findings by the Cassini spacecraft, one more name can be added to the list of water worlds: Enceladus, a small moon orbiting Saturn. What's more, Enceladus' water might be unusually hospitable to the emergence of life.

Nicholas Wade | Sydney | June 28

NYT - A new method of attacking cancer cells, developed by researchers in Australia, has proved surprisingly effective in animal tests.

The method is designed to sidestep two major drawbacks of standard chemotherapy — the treatment’s lack of specificity and the fact that cancer cells often develop resistance.

Rob Stein | June 25

WaPo - New York has become the first state to allow taxpayer-funded researchers to pay women for giving their eggs for embryonic stem cell research, a move welcomed by many scientists but condemned by critics who fear it will lead to the exploitation of vulnerable women.

The Empire State Stem Cell Board, which decides how to spend $600 million in state funding for stem cell studies, will allow researchers to compensate women up to $10,000 for the time, discomfort and expenses associated with donating eggs for experiments.

Robert S. Boyd | Washington | June 23

McClatchy -

In one of the most remarkable engineering feats of our time, the aging Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still taking orders and sending home pictures more than five years after they were supposed to turn into slabs of space junk.

Opportunity is still rolling along, but Spirit is hung up on a rock and may be reaching the end of its travels. The rovers' masters at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., hope they can nurse either or both of them through another harsh Martian winter.

They've given scientists a sweeping view of the history of Mars — once warm and wet, now dry and dusty. They've provided many details about the planet's chemistry, geology and atmosphere. They've proved that water once flowed on its surface.

They haven't been able, however, to answer the most important question: Did life ever exist there, or do living organisms perhaps still hide in the planet's crust? There have been hints — both pro and con — but nothing definite.

Nevertheless, after sending home more than a quarter million images, the rovers "have made Mars a familiar place,'' Callas said. "They've made Mars seemlike our own neighborhood. It's no longer a foreign or alien or distant world.''

Victoria Gill | June 17

BBC - Rats are able to play the odds in a "gambling task" designed by scientists to test the biology of addiction.

In the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, researchers describe how the rodents developed a "strategy" in a timed task where they make choices to earn treats.

The rodents avoided high-reward options because these carried high risks of punishment - their sugar pellet supply being cut off for a period.

June 18

EurekAlert - A University of Colorado at Boulder research team has discovered the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars, an indication of a deep, ancient lake there and a finding with implications for the discovery of past life on the Red Planet.

Estimated to be more than 3 billion years old, the lake appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep -- roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain bordering the United States and Canada, said CU-Boulder Research Associate Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study. The shoreline evidence, found along a broad delta, included a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be surviving remnants of beach deposits.

"This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars," said Di Achille. "The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago."

A paper on the subject by Di Achille, CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Brian Hynek and CU-Boulder Research Associate Mindi Searls, all of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, has been published online in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

Tracy davis | June 10

Ann Arbor News - Structures were above water about 9,000 years ago

University of Michigan researchers have found the first archaeological evidence of ancient human hunting activity preserved under the Great Lakes.

Using detailed government data on lake floor topography, a research vessel and a remote mini-rover equipped with a camera, scientists found what they believe are hunting pits, camps and rock structures called caribou "drive lines'' on the bottom of Lake Huron.

Drive lines, also called drive lanes, are walls built of rocks that hunters used to lure caribou into ambush. A peculiarity of the deer species is that it readily follows linear cues, even though the rock walls are short enough to step over.

The structures were found on an underwater ridge that - about 9,000 years ago - was a land bridge above water. The 10-mile-wide Alpena-Amberley ridge stretches more than 100 miles from near Point Clark, Ontario, to Presque Isle.

Fascinating diaries at Kos here and here, both the diaries include many links to explore.

Johann Hari | June 6

The Independent - The process of trawlering is an oceanic weapon of mass destruction

In the babbling Babel of 24/7 news – where elections, bailouts and beheadings blur into one long shriek – the slow-motion stories that will define our age are often lost. An extraordinary documentary released next week, The End of the Line, forces us to stop, and see. Its story is stark. In my parents' lifetime, we have killed 90 per cent of the world's fish. In my lifetime, we will finish off the rest – unless we change our ways, fast. We are on course to be the people who wiped fish from the earth.

The story begins in the sleepy Canadian resort of Newfoundland. It was the global capital of cod, a fishing town where the scaly creatures of the sea were so abundant they could be caught with your hands. But in the 1980s, something strange happened. The catches started to wane. The fish grew smaller. And then, in 1991, they disappeared.

It turned out the cod had been hoovered out of the sea at such a rapid rate that they couldn't reproduce themselves. But the postscript is spookier still. The Canadian government banned any attempts at fishing there, on the assumption that the few remaining fish would slowly repopulate the waters. But 15 years on, they haven't. The population was so destroyed that it could never recover.

A growing number of scientists are warning that we could all be living in Newfoundland soon. Professor Boris Worm of Dalhousie University published a detailed study in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Nature saying that at the current rate, all global fish populations will have collapsed by 2048. He says: "This isn't some horror scenario, it's a real possibility. It's not rocket science if we're depleting species after species. It's a finite resource. We'll reach a point where we run out."

Mike Stobbe | Atlanta | June 5

AP - Tourette's syndrome occurs in 3 out of every 1,000 school-age children, and is more than twice as common in white children as in blacks or Hispanics, according to the largest US study to estimate how many have the disorder.

Tourette's - known for its physical tics and, in some cases, shouted obscenities - has long been considered a rare condition. The new number means it's more common than some past estimates, but confirms that it's far less common than other neurological conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Steve Connor | Santa Fe, NM | June 5

The Independent - One of the defining characteristics of being human is the supreme act of personal sacrifice needed to lay down one's life for the good of the group – but could such altruism be hard-wired in our genes as a result of Darwinian evolution?

Biologists have argued for decades about the evolution of altruism and long ago came to the conclusion that Darwinian natural selection cannot explain acts of supreme personal sacrifice except those directly connected with helping the survival of close blood relatives who share similar genes.

The Cloud Appreciation Society says we need to recognise a new cloud type. Alongside cirrus and cumulus clouds, say hello to the asperatus. Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney explains(more pics at link).

The pics look like soon to be tornado clouds to me.

May 31

VOA News -
_{(The 10-meter-diameter target chamber, installed in June 1999, weighs 287,000 pounds Photo: NIF)}

The world's strongest laser - powerful enough to create conditions as hot as inside the Sun - was unveiled Friday in the western U.S. state of California for an audience of politicians and scientists.

The stadium-sized National Ignition Facility actually houses 192 lasers that all point towards a tiny blob of hydrogen.

When the lasers shoot, scientists expect the hydrogen will fuse into helium, a chemical reaction like what makes stars burn and nuclear bombs explode.

The project began in 1997 and cost the federal government an estimated $3.5 billion. The government says it will allow scientists to study in a lab what happens in a nuclear explosion. They say it will help scientists assess the safety of the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal.

But critics say the laser is unnecessary and costly. Some also worry it could help develop new nuclear weapons.

Also: AFP, AP, The Guardian and Discover Magazine Blog

Alok Jha | May 29

The Guardian - The battle for the Arctic's hidden mineral riches is likely to intensify after a survey revealing the energy reserves present beneath the ice.

A map of potential oil and gas reserves in the region, published today in Science, shows that about 30% of the world's ­un­exploited gas and 13% of oil lie under the seas around the north pole. Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas lie within the Arctic ­circle, where, until now, permanent ice has prevented drilling.

The report is likely to further stoke international competition for mineral, tourism and shipping rights in the region. Exploration and drilling for oil and gas have become easier as climate change forces the ice to retreat, and all countries with borders inside the Arctic circle are fighting to claim their share. "For better or worse, limited ­exploration prospects in the rest of the world ­combined with technological advances make the Arctic increasingly attractive for ­development," said Paul Berkman of the Scott polar research institute at the University of Cambridge, who specialises in the politics of the Arctic.

Victoria Gill | Mar 28

BBC - We are all capable of "hearing" shapes and sizes and perhaps even "tasting" sounds, according to researchers.

This blending of sensory experiences, or synaesthesia, they say, influences our perception and helps us make sense of a jumble of simultaneous sensations.

Oxford University scientists found that people associate lower-pitched sounds with larger and more rounded shapes.

One of the team is now working with chef Heston Blumenthal to incorporate words into a new dining experience.

Who thinks up this stuff?

Rob Stein | Kawasaki, Japan | May 27

WaPo - Scientists have created the first genetically modified monkeys that can pass their new genetic attributes to their offspring, an advance designed to give researchers new tools for studying human disease but one that raises a host of thorny ethical questions.

In this case, the Japanese researchers simply added genes that caused the animals to glow green under a fluorescent light and beget offspring with the same spooky ability in order to test a technique they hope to use to produce animals with Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases.

Paris | May 25

Reuters - Solar power plants in deserts using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays have the potential to generate up to a quarter of the world's electricity by 2050, a report by pro-solar groups said on Monday.

The study, by environmental group Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association (ESTELA) and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPACES group, said huge investments would also create jobs and fight climate change.

"Solar power plants are the next big thing in renewable energy," said Sven Teske of Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. The technology is suited to hot, cloudless regions such as the Sahara or Middle East.

The 28-page report said investments in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants were set to exceed 2 billion euros ($2.80 billion) worldwide this year, with the biggest installations under construction in southern Spain and California.

"Concentrating solar power could meet up to 7 percent of the world's projected power needs in 2030 and a full quarter by 2050," it said of the most optimistic scenario.

Mark Kinver | May 25

BBC - Medieval fishermen first took to the open seas in about AD1,000 as a result of a sharp decline in large freshwater fish, scientists have suggested.

They say the decline was probably the result of rising population and pollution levels.

The study forms part of a series that examines the impact of humans on life beneath the waves throughout history.

The findings will be presented at a Census of Marine Life (CoML) conference in Canada, which begins on Tuesday.

New York Times, By Benedict Carey, May 21

Laguna Woods, CA — The ladies in the card room are playing bridge, and at their age the game is no hobby. It is a way of life, a daily comfort and challenge, the last communal campfire before all goes dark.

“We play for blood,” says Ruth Cummins, 92, before taking a sip of Red Bull at a recent game.

Mark K. Matthews & Robert Block | Washington/Cape Canaveral, Fla. | May 23

LA Times - President Obama will name former astronaut Charles F. Bolden Jr. as NASA administrator, according to three congressional sources. If confirmed by the Senate, the retired Marine Corps general would be the first African American to head the agency.

The timing, the sources said, is keyed to the landing of the shuttle Atlantis, which remained in orbit Friday because of bad weather but will return today or Sunday. The sources were called Friday and briefed by the White House, which would not comment for this article.

The president will also announce that his campaign space advisor, Lori Garver, will be Bolden's deputy, the sources said.

Bolden would take over an agency in flux, one that needs to redefine its mission, adapt to budget realities and reestablish a sense of purpose to satisfy a chief executive who has called it "adrift."

Obama will make the announcement less than a week after the two men met in the White House for an interview that included frank discussions about Bolden's ties to NASA contractors and his opposition to future budget cuts that Obama has suggested may be necessary.

Pete Spotts | May 21

CSM -

A pockmarked lunar surface testifies to the beating the moon and Earth took during a 200-million-year period some 4 billion years ago, when asteroids hurtled into the inner solar system. Scientists at the University of Colorado have calculated that microbial life on Earth survived this pummeling, suggesting that life may have emerged on the planet as early as 4.4 billion years ago.
(NASA/Project Apollo Archive)

Jon Herskovitz | Seoul | May 17

Reuters - South Korea's top technology university has developed a plan to power electric cars through recharging strips embedded in roadways that use a technology to transfer energy found in some electric toothbrushes.

The plan, still in the experimental stage, calls for placing power strips about 20 cm (8 inches) to 90 cm (35 inches) wide and perhaps several hundred metres long built into the top of roads.

Vehicles with sensor-driven magnetic devices on their underside can suck up energy as they travel over the strips without coming into direct contact.

"If we place these strips on about 10 percent of roadways in a city, we could power electric vehicles," said Cho Dong-ho, the manager of the "online electric vehicle" plan at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

The university has built a prototype at its campus in Daejeon, about 140 km (90 miles) south of Seoul, for electric-powered golf carts and is working on designs that would power cars and buses.

The system that can charge several vehicles at once would allow electric cars and buses to cut down on their battery sizes or extend their ranges.

John Noble Wilford | Oslo | May 16

NYT - Fossil remains of a 47-million-year-old animal, found years ago in Germany, have been analyzed more thoroughly and determined to be an extremely early primate close to the emergence of the evolutionary branch leading to monkeys, apes and humans, scientists said in interviews this week.

Described as the “most complete fossil primate ever discovered,” the specimen is a juvenile female the size of a small monkey. Only the left lower limb is missing, and the preservation is so remarkable that impressions of fur and the soft body outline are still clear. The animal’s last meal, of fruit and leaves, remained in the stomach cavity.

Boston, MA | May 15

HealthDay News - A hidden viral infection that most adults harbor could be a cause of high blood pressure, animal studies indicate.

Mice infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) were more likely to develop not only high blood pressure but also the hardening of the arteries called atherosclerosis, according to a report in the May 15 issue of PLoS Pathogens by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

"This could be of immense importance," said lead researcher Dr. Clyde Crumpacker, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess. "The implication for the human population is that antiviral therapy or a vaccine could be an intervention for high blood pressure."

Nicholas Wade | Manchester, England | May 14

NYT - An English chemist has found the hidden gateway to the RNA world, the chemical milieu from which the first forms of life are thought to have emerged on earth some 3.8 billion years ago.

He has solved a problem that for 20 years has thwarted researchers trying to understand the origin of life — how the building blocks of RNA, called nucleotides, could have spontaneously assembled themselves in the conditions of the primitive earth. The discovery, if correct, should set researchers on the right track to solving many other mysteries about the origin of life. It will also mean that for the first time a plausible explanation exists for how an information-carrying biological molecule could have emerged through natural processes from chemicals on the primitive earth.