Very Cool Staphylococcus aureus Interactive Surveillance Site [Mike the Mad Biologist]
The success of a European MRSA surveillance network shows just how stupid, foolish, and short-sighted the Obama Administration's decision to cut CDC antimicrobial resistance surveillance is. But let's turn this frown upside down campers, and look at the really cool website the European Staphylococcal Reference Laboratory Working Group set up.
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Crickets forewarn their offspring about predators before they’re born [Not Exactly Rocket Science]
Mothers can teach their children much about the world, but some mothers can do it without ever meeting their young. Take the field cricket Gryllus pennsylvanicus. A female cricket isn't exactly a caring mother. Once she lays her eggs, she abandons them to their fate. But amazingly, she can also forewarn her young of the dangers they might face. If a pregnant female is exposed to a wolf spider, her experiences affect her unborn young. When they hatch, the baby crickets are more likely to freeze when they smell wolf spiders nearby.
If mothers sense a threat in their environment, there are clear advantages in being able to prepare her young to face those threats. Over the last decade or so, scientists have discovered that many animal and plant mothers do exactly this, even before their young are born. If pregnant water fleas are exposed to the smell of a predatory midge, they produce young that are armed with larger "crowns-of-thorn", defensive spiky helmets that make them difficult mouthfuls. In the same way, aphids produce more winged offspring if they sense danger. Even the humble radish can generate a generation with sharp, spiky hairs.
In all of these examples, the adaptations are physical ones. The case of the crickets, documented by Jonathan Storm and Steven Lima at Indiana State University, is the clearest example yet of mothers preparing their young for life by influencing their behaviour. Physical defences wouldn't do much good here, for even the largest of crickets are easy pickings for spiders.
Storm and Lima bred crickets that had never seen a wolf spider before. They placed pregnant females in cages with wolf spiders whose killing fangs had been disabled with wax. After a while, the females were removed and allowed to lay their eggs. Storm and Lima collected the hatchlings and placed them in plastic arenas lined in paper saturated with the faeces and silk lines of wolf spiders.
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A Splendid Endeavour! [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]
tags: NASA, Endeavour, International Space Station, spaceship launch, STS-130,Kennedy Space Center, space exploration, physics, astronomy, engineering, streaming video
Space shuttle Endeavour, carrying Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Behnken, Steve Robinson and Kay Hire, successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of February 8, headed for its 13-day STS-130 mission to the International Space Station.
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Soufriere Hills continues having a big winter [Eruptions]
A pyroclastic flow from the February 5 vulcanian eruption of Soufriere Hills. Image courtesy of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO).
UPDATE: See some amazing images of the recent eruptive activity over on Stromboli Online. {Hat tip to the Volcanism Blog via Eruptions reader CK.}
One event that didn't eat much coverage over the weekend, at least here in the U.S., was the large eruption and explosions at Soufriere Hills on Montserrat. The volcano has had a resurgent winter since have a quiet summer of 2009. This weekend's eruption produced an ash plume that reached ~6.1 km / 20,000 feet - which has been happening quite a bit over the last month or so. However, this eruption produced an large pyroclastic flow that reached the former capitol of Montserrat, Plymouth and 500 meters (not miles as one report states) into the sea. This eruption would technically be a vulcanian eruption according to MVO and prevailing winds prevented ash or lapilli from falling on the eastern half of Montserrat. This eruption was likely related to the collapse of the growing summit dome. MVO has posted a thermal video of a previous vulcanian event on January 7-8, showing the collapse/explosion from the dome and the pyroclastic flow generated - both made of hot (>500 C). The latest information on the current activity from Soufriere suggests that the central western part of the dome was growing steadily before the vulcanian event over the weekend, but there is yet to be another observation of the dome to see if that has changed.
Help me find a video! [Eruptions]
This is a request more related to my teaching, but I thought I'd ask here. I'm trying to find copies of the UNESCO videos "Understanding Volcanic Hazards" and "Reducing Volcanic Risk". They were made by the Kraffts to help educate people on volcanic hazards, especially in developing countries. I've seen them both and they are great for introductory geology classes. However, the one source I knew of - the NW Interpretive Assoc. - doesn't seem to carry them anymore - and even if they did, the only format I know of is VHS, which is getting woefully obsolete.
So, do any of you know where I might be able to get a copy of either/both of these films, either on VHS, DVD or otherwise? Leave a comment here or send me an email at 
Thanks for any help!
Racehorse Research Identifies Speed Gene [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]
tags: evolutionary biology, molecular biology, Thoroughbred race horses, horses, aerobic capacity, muscle development, myostatin, MSTN, myostatin-suppressing C variant, myostatin-suppressing T variant, Horse Genome Project, Equinome, bpr3.org/?p=52, peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
Emerging from the mist is Rachel Alexandra, a champion American Thoroughbred who excels at winning both long and short distance races.
If you've worked at or been around a racetrack very much, as I have, you'll quickly realize that everyone there has their own pet idea for picking winners. Horse breeders have always relied on pedigree analysis and studying the horse's conformation to predict whether a particular racehorse is better suited for running short or longer distances. But this is an inexact science that can waste valuable time, money and sometimes, horses. Which makes one wonder whether modern molecular biology can be applied to the challenge of identifying specific genes that make a particular horse better suited to running sprints or distances?
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Did DOE Chief Scientist Say We’re Definitely Going to 550ppm? [Casaubon's Book]
Dr. Steven Koonin of the DOE recently spoke about the future of energy and its implications for the goals of the New York State University system. Given that my husband is employed by said system, and in fact teaches Environmental Physics (aka "Here's how to do the math to prove we're doomed 
"), this was interesting to me. Neither of us was present for this event, but a friend who was reported that Koonin stated in the presentation, as a representative of the DOE that it unrealistic to expect the US to hold carbon emissions below 450ppm and that 550ppm was the best that could reasonably be hoped for. I'm attempting now to query and find out if this represents DOE opinion, or US administration opinion.
Note, what's interesting to me about this isn't that I don't agree - I think the chances of the US achiveing constraints that put us at 450ppm is extremely unlikely indeed - and 450 almost certainly wouldn't be adequate to constrain climate change. But I was under the impression that stated Obama administration policy was that we were still shooting to achieve 450ppm, so this may represent part of a gradual process of accustoming us to the realities.
I wanted to confirm this, by watching the video of the presentation, but it won't play for me. I'm not sure if it is my crappy internet or video - anyone with time on their hands and faster internet want to find out for me? His presentation begins at 34 minutes in, and there's a slide with 450 on it that should be useful to indicate where he talks about this.
http://suny.mediasite.com/suny/Viewer/Viewers/ViewerVideoOnly.aspx?mode=Default&peid=21af250c-3999-4767-8cab-de9007a30e60&playerType=WM7#
You can also view the powerpoint linked from here: http://www.suny.edu/strategicplan/presentationsPublications.cfm
Overall, it seems like the basic "we can do it" presentation with little discussion of the actual implications. Again, what's interesting is whether the administration, or just some people in it are trying to get the US ready to join China in its expressed sense that 450 ain't gonna happen.
This is easier, I gather, if one doesn't include any discussion of the consequences of 550ppm - as I'm told is the case in this presentation.
Sharon
AU Forum and Report on The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World [Framing Science]
UPDATE: Due to the weather, the Forum is postponed until the end of February or early March. When a date is finalized, I will post details.
Tuesday night at 7pm, American University's School of Communication will be hosting a panel discussion focused on "The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World." [Follow the link for location on campus and directions.]
Joining me on the panel will be the Washington Post's national environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin and Mother Jones energy and environmental reporter Kate Shepard. The panel will be moderated by AU journalism professor Jane Hall.
The event will be broadcast live on WAMU, the capitol region's NPR news station. A downloadable MP3 of the broadcast will also be available through WAMU. Live and archived video of the event will be streamed by the American Observer, a project of the graduate program in journalism at AU. Check out the preview page that Observer staff have put together.
Also released on Tuesday evening will be a survey analysis and report authored by AU professor Lauren Feldman in collaboration with myself and colleagues Anthony Leiserowitz (Yale University) and Edward Maibach (George Mason University.)
Based on a new analysis of nationally representative survey data collected by Leiserowitz and Maibach in January 2010, the report finds that Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are, for the most part, split on the issue of global warming and, on some indicators, relatively disengaged when compared to older generations. The complete report is embargoed until Tuesday night at 7pm. Journalists can contact me at nisbet AT american DOT edu for an advance embargoed copy.
Helping people fill out financial aid forms (at H&R Block!) increases the rate of college attendance [Applied Statistics]
Eric Bettinger, Bridget Terry Long, Philip Oreopoulos, and Lisa Sanbonmatsu write:
Growing concerns about low awareness and take-up rates for government support programs like college financial aid have spurred calls to simplify the application process and enhance visibility.
Here's the study:
H&R Block tax professionals helped low- to moderate-income families complete the FAFSA, the federal application for financial aid. Families were then given an estimate of their eligibility for government aid as well as information about local postsecondary options. A second randomly-chosen group of individuals received only personalized aid eligibility information but did not receive help completing the FAFSA.
And the results:
Comparing the outcomes of participants in the treatment groups to a control group . . . individuals who received assistance with the FAFSA and information about aid were substantially more likely to submit the aid application, enroll in college the following fall, and receive more financial aid. . . . However, only providing aid eligibility information without also giving assistance with the form had no significant effect on FAFSA submission rates.
The treatment raised the proportion of applicants in this group who attended college from 27% (or, as they quaintly put it, "26.8%") to 35%. Pretty impressive. Overall, it appears to be a clean study. And they estimate interactions (that is, varying treatment effects), which is always, always, always a good idea.
Here are my recommendations for improving the article (and this, I hope, increasing the influence of this study):
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Clean smells promote generosity and fair play; dark rooms and sunglasses promote deceit and selfishness [Not Exactly Rocket Science]
The English language is full of metaphors linking moral purity to both physical cleanliness and brightness. We speak of "clean consciences", "pure thoughts" and "dirty thieves". We're suspicious of "shady behaviour" and we use light and darkness to symbolise good and evil. But there is more to these metaphors than we might imagine. The mere scent of a clean-smelling room can take people down a virtuous road, compelling them to choose generosity over greed and charity over apathy. Meanwhile, the darkness of a dimmed room or a pair of sunglasses can compel people towards selfishness and cheating.
These new results are the latest from psychologist Chen-Bo Zhong. Back in 2006, he showed that people who brought back memories of past wrong-doings were more likely to think of words related to cleaning, or to physically crave cleaning products. He called this the "Lady Macbeth effect". Subsequently, another group found that it works the other way too. People judge moral transgressions more leniently if they had previously washed their hands or if they had been primed with words related to cleanliness, like 'pure' or 'immaculate'.
Now, Zhong, together with Katie Liljenquist and Adam Galinsky, have expanded on these studies by showing that clean smells can make people behave more virtuously. They ushered 28 volunteers into a room that was either unscented or that had been lightly sprayed with a citrus air freshener. In either case, they had to play a trust game, where a "sender" has a pot of money and chooses how much they want to invest with a "receiver". The investment is tripled and the receiver decides how much to give back.
The volunteers were all told that they had been randomly chosen as receivers. Their anonymous partner had invested their entire pot with them, which had been tripled to . Their job was to decide how much to give back. On average, they returned a measly .81in the unscented rooms but a more equitable .33 in the scented ones. The single spray of citrus nearly doubled their tendency to reciprocate.
In a second experiment, the trio again ushered 99 students into either a scented or unscented room. They were given a pack of miscellaneous tasks, including a flyer requesting volunteers for a charity called Habitat for Humanity. Those in the citrus-scented rooms were more likely to be interested in volunteering, and almost four times more willing to donate money to the cause.
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