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Sudden Glacial Rebound: Fast-shrinking Glacier Experienced Rapid Growth During Cooler Times

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© Alley et al, 2005.Satellite view of the ice front and grounding line position of the JIG. The color lines show the locations of the ice tongue's front at several times
A study has found that large, marine-calving glaciers have the ability not only to shrink rapidly in response to global warming, but to grow at a remarkable pace during periods of global cooling.

The finding, by University at Buffalo geologists working in Greenland, stems from new research on Jakobshavn Isbrae, a tongue of ice extending out to sea from Greenland's west coast.

Through an analysis of adjacent lake sediments and plant fossils, the UB team determined that the glacier, which retreated about 40 kilometres inland between 1850 and 2010, expanded outward at a similar pace about 200 years ago, during a time of cooler temperatures known as the Little Ice Age.

"We know that Jakobshavn Isbrae has retreated at this incredible rate in recent years, and our study suggests that it advanced that fast, also," said Jason Briner, the associate professor of geology who led the research.

Comment: Now, imagine a sudden drop in global temperatures, due to external and cosmic related influences, then consider the following excerpts from Superluminal Communications:

February 22, 1997:
A: ...One change to occur in 21st Century is sudden glacial rebound, over Eurasia first, then North America. Ice ages develop much, much, much faster than thought.
March 18, 2000:
Q: You also made a remark once that ice ages occur much, much faster than people ever thought...
A: Yes.
Q: Do we need to invest in some mukluks and snowshoes?
A: ??
Q: Well, what I am trying to get at is: should we start stockpiling firewood?
A: Maybe.
Q: So, it could be that fast?
A: Oh yes, and faster when in response to global" warming."

Q: When you put "warming" in quotes, you obviously mean warming in more than just an ordinary sense? Is that correct?
A: And/or not really "warm."



Blackbox

Spooky Quantum Communication?

"The skies over the Spanish island of La Palma offer many beauties, but on July 4th I witnessed something unusual: a ghostly green laser beam crossing the Milky Way," reports Jan Hattenbach from the Canary Islands. "I have learned that it was part of an experiment in quantum communication." Scroll past the laser for more information:
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© Jan Hattenbach

"Rupert Ursin of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences explained to me that the laser was part of an inter-island quantum-cryptography experiment," says Hattenbach. "Physicists send entangled UV-photons from the Roque de los Muchachos observatory (ORM) on La Palma to the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station 144 km away on the island of Tenerife. The goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of quantum communication over very long distances in space--e.g., to the International Space Station or other satellites.

Beaker

Scientists grow whole tooth units

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A bioengineered tooth engrafted into the lower jaw of a mouse
A team of Japanese scientists have created complete tooth units by using mouse stem cells and successfully transplanted them into mice.

The tooth units, which also contain connective fibers and bones, were attached successfully to the lower jaw bones, and helped the rats to chew normally, researchers wrote in PLoS One.

As the first step, researchers isolated two types of stem cells from the molar teeth of mice and grew them in the laboratory.

The cells formed a tiny "tooth bud" within five days, which were then placed in a mold. The primary structures were then placed inside the body of the mouse until a complete tooth unit was formed.

"The bioengineered teeth were fully functional ... there was no trouble (with) biting and eating food after transplantation," wrote Masamitsu Oshima from the Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science.

Robot

CIA's DARPA working on human-brain-mimicking tech

Company that built the first internet node hired

The company which built the first ever internet nodes back in the 1960s - and which gave the world the "@" symbol in email, among other things - has been hired by the US intelligence community to work on technology which could mimic "the brain's ability to make sense of large amounts of haphazard, partial information".

Back in the late 1960s, Boston-based BBN technologies was hired by the US military Advanced Research Projects Agency (later renamed DARPA) to develop the first nodes of the ARPAnet, which later became the internet we all know and love. DARPA's various successes for the military over the decades since have inspired the CIA and allied US intelligence agencies to start up their own version of the famous bureau, dubbed the Intelligence Advanced Research projects Agency (IARPA).

Beaker

How to Design a Trial to Ensure You Don't Get the Result You Don't Want

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© Shapiso
Earlier this month I wrote a post that focused on a trial involving the cholesterol-reducing drug ezetimibe. Ezetimibe works in a different way to statins (the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-reducing medication). While statins block cholesterol's production in the liver, ezetimibe block its absorption from the gut.

When you add ezetimibe to a statin (there's a medication called Vytorin that includes both), you can surely get a stunning reduction in cholesterol numbers. The problem is, as I've been at pains to point out before, the effect drugs (or anything else) have on cholesterol is irrelevant - it's the impact they have on health, that counts. Trust me when I tell you if can lodge this fact in your head, you'll be way ahead of many doctors and researchers in your thinking.

Sun

Comet's 'death by sun' captured for first time

Sun evaporates comet
© NASA / SDO / AIAThe Solar Dynamics Observatory AIA imager (observing in extreme ultraviolet light) actually spotted a sun-grazing comet as it disintegrated over about a 15-minute period on July 6, something never observed before. The angle of the comet's orbit brought it across the front half of the sun. Given the intense heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away. The comet was probably a member of the Kreutz sun-grazer family.
Satellite witnesses a 'sun-grazer' hit heat and disintegrate in 15 minutes

The death of a comet that plunged into the sun was captured on camera this month for the first time in history, scientists say.

The comet met its fiery demise on July 6 when it zoomed in from behind the sun and melted into oblivion as it crashed into the star. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a satellite orbiting Earth that studies the sun, witnessed the comet's death-blow.

One of the SDO spacecraft's high-definition imagers "actually spotted a sun-grazing comet as it disintegrated over about a 15-minute period July 6, 2011, something never observed before," SDO officials said.

Comets have been spotted near the sun before, but last week's object was the first to be observed in real-time as it disappeared.

"Given the intense heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away completely," SDO officials said.

Bulb

More Fun With the Gut Microbiota and the Brain (In Mice)

Mouse experiment
Everyone has been tweeting this new paper, and I have to say, it's a doozy. I don't recommend that many papers, as most are fairly painful to read (though many papers are full of interesting facts, they don't teach scientists how to write), but if you can get your hands on this one, please do so.

The Intestinal Microbiota Affect Central Levels of Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor and Behavior in Mice

Let's dive in. Ooh, I like the first part:
The intestinal microbiota is a vast ecosystem that shapes a wide variety of host functions, both within and outside the gastrointestinal tract.
Y'all may recall my previous article in which we have evidence that your commensal beasties, which make up 90% of your cells, also control a mouse's brain (and possibly yours.) And something like this paper and this experimental design excite me more than the endocannabinoid/rat paper I wrote about yesterday. I don't doubt that we probably have endocannabinoid receptors for corn oil (which may be activated by all kinds of fats) in our guts, or ones for sweets in our mouths, I'm just not sure what it means when isolated in that way via the sham-feeding and with creepy rat chow liquid diets that immediately drain out and dribble onto the rat cage in a gross gut slurry. However, we do have to keep in mind that these are rodents who diverged from the family tree many many many millions of years ago...

Info

New Brain Discovery May Help Prevent Relapses in Addicts

Cravings Explained.
© Emma VoughtA new brain pathway has been identified that links a brain area involved in representing environments (hippocampus) to an area that processes reward (VTA). This is important, for example, because places where addicts previously sought or obtained drugs can cause them to crave drugs again and lead them to relapse. This circuit provides a target to manipulate to help break the addiction cycle.

What makes you crave a Big Mac when you see the golden arches? Or long for a beer when you see a cold one on TV? A single pathway in the brain is to blame, new research suggests, and putting the brakes on it could stop addicts from relapsing.

The pathway connects the hippocampus, the part of the brain that analyzes and interprets the environment around you (using the contextual information that comes in through your senses, such as seeing a beer on TV) with the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, which processes reward-driven behaviors (such as grabbing a beer from the refrigerator).

Reward-driven behaviors release the brain chemical dopamine. Such behaviors include sex and eating, which are very important in daily life. But some drugs release these dopamine "rewards" at higher levels than natural reactions do, the heart of addiction.

"One of the issues we know of in drug addition is that a simple re-exposure to the drug-using environment ... will often result in relapse," said study researcher Alice Luo of the National Institutes of Health, in Baltimore. "Hopefully we can short-circuit the actual circuit itself, so the link between the context and reward could be blunted."

Beaker

First Study into GM Atlantic Salmon Mating Reveals Danger of Escape to Wild Gene Pool

GMO vs farm salmon
© n/a
If genetically modified Atlantic salmon were to escape from captivity they could succeed in breeding and passing their genes into the wild, Canadian researchers have found. Their research, published in Evolutionary Applications, explores the potential reproductive implications of GM salmon as they are considered for commercial farming.

"The use of growth-enhancing transgenic technologies has long been of interest to the aquaculture industry and now genetically modified Atlantic salmon is one of the first species to be considered for commercial farming. Yet, little is known about the potential impact on wild salmon populations if the GM species were to escape captivity," said lead author Darek Moreau from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

One of the key concerns about a transgene escape is the "Trojan gene effect", caused when a GM fish outcompetes or reproduces equally against wild rivals, however if the resulting offspring are genetically inferior this could lead a species towards eventual extinction. Until now there is no empirical research to demonstrate the ability of transgenic Atlantic salmon to breed naturally and infiltrate the wild gene pool.

Info

Solar Wind Changes Atmospheric Pressure over South Korea

Solar Winds
© Technology Review, MIT
Evidence is growing that interplanetary magnetic fields can have a significant influence on our weather.

Space weather is a topic of growing interest both to space scientists and researchers whose focus is more Earth bound. Solar physicists have long known that the Sun regularly sends powerful magnetic clouds our way.

When they strike, the damage can be extensive. The magnetic fields induce currents in railway tracks and power lines which can then bring down entire power networks.

But the influence of space weather on the terrestrial weather is less well understood. The solar wind, and the magnetic clouds that sometimes accompany it, contain huge amounts of energy. Much of this is absorbed or deflected by the Earth's magnetic field.

But from time to time, magnetic clouds can temporarily lower our defences. During these so-called Forbush Decreases, more particles from the solar wind can get through and dump their load in the upper atmosphere.

It stands to reason that such an injection of energy could change the weather. And there's certainly evidence that this can happen at high latitudes near the poles. But the rest of the planet seems better protected.