UV, You See? Black Light Reveals Secrets in Fossils [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]
tags: evolution, evolutionary biology, UV light, flight, dinosaur, dromaeosaur, theropods, Microraptor gui, paleontology, fossils, birds, bpr3.org/?p=52,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper, journal club
Figure 1. The holotype of Microraptor gui, IVPP V 13352 under normal light. This shows the preserved feathers (white arrow) and the 'halo' around the specimen where they appear to be absent (black arrows). Scale bar at 5 cm. [larger view]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009223
It has long been known that when exposed to ultraviolent light, fossilized bones and shells -- and even tissues -- will fluoresce, thus rendering undetectable details visible. But this technique has been used mostly to visualize fossilized invertebrates, and inexplicably, has rarely been used to investigate hidden structures in most vertebrate fossils. But a team of paleontologists recently studied the Microraptor gui holotype using UV light.
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Day 2 of Online Voting for Spirit of Innovation Awards is upon us! [USA Science and Engineering Festival: The Blog]
Day two for voting for the spirit of innovation awards is upon us. Check out www.conradawards.org for more information on all of the teams, their products, and to submit your vote!
Here are a few videos of teams up for the Spirit of Innovation award.
Check out what Greem MAST from Milken Community High School in L.A is doing!
And Check out Team Delicious who will take you on a date with Cynthia, a Space Matter bar, their nutrition bar, in their final commercial video.
Are Probiotics the Cure for Abdominal Obesity? [Obesity Panacea]
Nope, not even close, although I doubt it will stop big food from marketing Activia yogurt and others as a solution for expanded waistlines.
According to the World Health Organization, probiotics are:
"Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host".
Over the past few years there has been a huge surge in the addition of specific probiotic cultures into various fermented milk products, such as yogurt. For the most part the marketing push behind these products has focused on the potential for regulating digestive function (i.e. Jaime Lee Curtis commercial). However, due to a recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, I forsee a swift change in gears towards billing various fermented milk products as the panacea for obesity.
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The Climate Auditors: The End of Information Asymmetry? [Framing Science]
Last month, Judith Curry had an important essay at Physics Today that deserves more attention than it has received.
Curry argues that unlike the industry-funded climate skeptic movement of the past, contemporary debate is driven by a new generation of blog-based "climate auditors" who merge their own professional expertise with online communication strategies to demand a greater level of transparency in climate science. Here's how Curry describes the movement:
So who are the climate auditors? They are technically educated people, mostly outside of academia. Several individuals have developed substantial expertise in aspects of climate science, although they mainly audit rather than produce original scientific research. They tend to be watchdogs rather than deniers; many of them classify themselves as "lukewarmers". They are independent of oil industry influence. They have found a collective voice in the blogosphere and their posts are often picked up by the mainstream media. They are demanding greater accountability and transparency of climate research and assessment reports.
In this sense, the blogosphere has reduced the information asymmetry of climate change communication.
In the past, scientists could expect strong deference and trust in the peer-review process and in the decisions of expert committee reports such as those from the IPCC. There were of course dismissive challenges from figures such as James Inhofe, but apart from the conservative base and elected officials, these objections to peer-reviewed science were never really taken seriously.
But in recent years, as advocates have argued that the peer-reviewed science is the principle reason to pass policies such as cap and trade legislation, climate auditors have responded by asking for a "second-level" of review, one that they would like to make open, accessible, and participatory to non-scientists via the Web.
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A hyena’s LOL contains important information about itself [Laelaps]
Spotted hyenas giggling over an antelope spine. Courtesy BMC Ecology.
For spotted hyenas, a laugh can speak volumes about an individual.
Despite being portrayed as stupid scavengers who rely on the leftovers of lion prides, hyenas are highly intelligent and social predators. They communicate with each other through an array of whoops, yowls, grunts, screams, and giggles, and by using these calls an individual can call in help to run lions off a carcass or signal that it's time to beat a hasty retreat if the odds don't look as favorable. Yet there is more to a hyena call than just its message, and in a new study published in BMC Ecology a team of scientists have begun to parse what giggles say about the hyena making the call.
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Breaking Up Is Hard: An Open Letter To Discovery Communications [Observations of a Nerd]
Dear Discovery,
This is really hard for me to say. We've been so close for such a long time, and I feel like there was something real between us. Sure, there have been some rough times, like when you decided deforestation was worth televising. We've had our fights about silly things like how you perpetuate a negative stereotype through shark week and whether ghost hunting is valid programing for a science-oriented network. I've cheated on you with National Geographic a few times, and yet you forgave me. In spite of all our troubles, I still love you, mostly because of Mike Rowe, Dave Salmoni and the Mythbusters, and I really believed that we would make it work - somehow.
But this time, I fear the wounds will be too deep. I just don't think I'll be able to get over this. You've broken my heart for the last time.
No, I'm not talking about you choosing Oprah to narrate Life (though, come on - you have Mike Rowe at your disposal!). I'm talking about how you have decided to go behind my back and get in bed with Sarah Palin.
How could you?! How dare you be with her and try to tell me that you haven't changed, that you're the same science-loving, environment-protecting network I fell in love with?
![Palin gams[1].jpg](http://scienceblogs.com/observations/assets_c/2010/03/Palin gams[1]-thumb-200x133-43869.jpg)
This is a woman who would destroy the very "nature" that the series you're paying her .2 million an episode is supposed to showcase! Did you forget about her terrible environmental record? Did you forget that she campaigned to no only allow the aerial hunting of wolves, but pay people for it? Fought tooth and nail to remove protections animals like Beluga Whales and Polar Bears? That she openly and unabashedly desires to tear apart the wilderness of Alaska to fill it with oil platforms? This is a women who flaunts her disbelief of scientific consensuses like evolution and climate change! She is the picture of everything that you are supposed to be in the fight against.
I repeat - how could you?!
I'm sorry. I just can't be with you anymore. I can't keep lying to myself, convincing myself that you're the network I want you to be. I can't snuggle up and watch Life and pretend that none of this has happened. Part of me still loves you, so this is harder for me than you can imagine.
I'm breaking up with you, Discovery - for good, this time. Not even Mike can make things better, even if he shows up at my door in person to beg for me to come back.
Well, maybe not for good. I don't know. *Sigh* Maybe we could be friends again some day down the road, if all of this changes. But it seems like you're slipping further and further away from me every day, and I sincerely doubt that I'll be able to look at you with the same adoring, innocent eyes that I used to ever again.
For now, though, it's over. Goodbye.
Your once-biggest-fan,
Christie
Submarine volcano off Italy may be a tsunami threat [Eruptions]
Map showing the location of submarine volcano Marsili, near the Italian coast. Image from INGV.
The subject of submarine volcanism near Italy has come up before here on Eruptions but now it has made the jump into the worldwide media after some claims made by Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
The long and short of what I can tell from the articles is that Marsili, a submarine volcano in the Tyrrhenian Sea, could be a threat to create a significant tsunami that would hit Italy (amongst other Mediterranean countries). The volcano lies only 150 km / 90 miles to the southwest of Naples and is under ~450 meters / 1500 feet below sea level. The fear is that an eruption of Marsili would cause part of the edifice to collapse, producing what could amount (in a worst-case situation) to an undersea version of the Mt. Saint Helens 1980 eruption. It could also just suffer from edifice collapse, producing a tsunami similiar to what happened at Unzen in Japan in 1792.
Now I am no expert on the state of research on some of these submarine Italian volcanoes, but some of the articles seem to suggest that the volcano is "ready to erupt". My favorite line might be from an AFP article that states "The Marsili volcano, which is bursting with magma, has "fragile walls" that could collapse". I've never heard of a volcano as being "bursting with magma," but I fear something could have been lost in translation along the way. The evidence presented in the article does suggest that Marsili could be more of a threat to Italy than previously thought, but I fear that the following quote from Boschi is being liberally interpreted:
"Our latest research shows that the volcano is not structurally solid, its walls are fragile, the magma chamber is of sizeable dimensions. All that tells us that the volcano is active and could begin erupting at any time."
(my emphasis).
Now, I read that final phrase as meaning that it is an active volcano, thus future activity is likely - it could be soon, it could be hundreds or thousands of years from now, but the volcano is likely not extinct. However, my guess is that many of the news outlets read that phrase as "it is going to erupt very soon!"
If you want to see some excellent dissection of the Marsili reports, head on over to the Volcanism Blog. You can also see some additional comments on this news from Boris Behncke. For now, I think we can all agree that Marsili should be on our radar as a volcanic threat to Italy, but some of the headlines out here (e.g., "Volcano tsunami could engulf Italian coast 'at any time'"), as usual, are a little over-the-top.
{Thanks to Aldo Pombino for some of the links in this post.}
"Jaw-dropping" verdict against Myriad in BRCA patent case [Genetic Future]
One of the major potential stumbling blocks for the field of genome-based diagnostics - particularly as we begin to move into the whole-genome sequencing era - is the unresolved issue of gene patents.
In the broader policy debate surrounding gene and biotechnology patents, however, this decision is the latest, unmistakable shot across the bow of gene patent holders, particularly those such as Myriad Genetics that have developed businesses around patent-protected genetic tests supported by exclusive rights in underlying gene patents. As we wrote last summer, and as the SACGHS report pointed out in detail, there is a coming crisis at the intersection of multiplex genetic testing and whole-genome sequencing and biotechnology patents, particularly gene patents. This decision is sure to intensify the public policy discussion surrounding the appropriateness of gene patents, and ratchet up the media and public attention paid to the issue.
Some Yahoo email accounts hacked in China, Taiwan (Reuters)
BEIJING, Mar. 31, 2010 (Reuters) -- Yahoo email accounts of some journalists and other users whose work relates to China were compromised in an attack discovered this week, days after Google announced it would move its Chinese-language search services out of China due to censorship concerns. ... > read full story
Bomb rocks town in Russia’s Dagestan: report (Reuters)
MOSCOW, Mar. 31, 2010 (Reuters) -- A bomb exploded in the center of the town of Kizlyar in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Wednesday, causing casualties, Itar-Tass news agency quoted police as saying. ... > read full story