Science & TechnologyS


Blackbox

Timeline: The secret history of swine flu

Debora MacKenzie and Michael Marshall
New Scientist
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:54 UTC
Image
© Associated Press16 August 1957: a nurse at Montefiore Hospital gets the first Asian flu vaccine shot in New York
Six months ago, swine flu emerged as a massive threat to global health. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but our timeline explains how the origins of the H1N1 pandemic go back more than a century

1889

Prior to 1889, the main flu virus circulating in humans has been from the H1 family. But this year, a new strain of H2 flu emerges in Russia and spreads around the world, killing about 1 million people. Afterwards, H2 replaces H1 in humans. Such replacements seem to be a regular feature of flu pandemics.

People born before 1889, who have been exposed to H1 flu, have some immunity to it. This affords them some protection in the deadly H1N1 epidemic of 1918. Those born after 1889 do not have any immunity to H1.

1918

The "Spanish flu" epidemic of 1918 kills at least 50 million people worldwide. It is caused by an H1N1 virus which evolves directly from a bird flu into a human flu.

After a mild wave of infections in the summer, the epidemic goes global: one-third of the population eventually get sick. Although most cases are mild, many sufferers develop a rapidly fatal infection deep in their lungs. People born before 1889 are less susceptible, thanks to their previous exposure to H1N1.

Most deaths are caused by bacterial lung infections that move in after the virus. Modern antibiotics might mean that a re-run of the 1918 pandemic would be less dangerous.

After 1919, the descendants of the H1N1 virus continue to circulate and cause seasonal flu outbreaks in humans - and pigs.

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Telescope

Voices of long-dead stars haunt the galaxy

David Shiga
New Scientist
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:14 UTC
Image
© NASA/NRAO/AUI/NSFSome neutron stars only appear as radio blips
Mysterious radio blips that come from apparently empty regions of space may be the voices of long-dead stars.

Thirteen unexplained radio blips have turned up in radio telescope observations since the 1980s. They emerged in spots where there are no stars or galaxies to be seen, last anywhere from hours to days, and do not seem to repeat. The blips could be traces of a vast population of stellar corpses - neutron stars that roam the universe largely unseen, suggests a team led by Eran Ofek of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Most of the galaxy's estimated billion neutron stars are invisible. Some of the newly formed ones have been detected because their rapid rotation sends radio pulses our way multiple times per second. These are thought to fade with age.
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Sherlock

Archeologists Discover Ancient Fortress near Moscow


Russia-InfoCentre
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00 UTC
Fortress
© cinform.ru
Archeologists have found defensive installations of an Old Russian fortress that stood at the confluence of Dubna River and Volga more than 800 years back.

In the course of archeological excavations they cleared a plot of a defensive moat, which had been constructed in the early 12th century and soon destroyed by a massive fire.

Experts assume that the initial version of the fortress on the border with Novgorod land was erected by Yuri Dolgoruki - the Prince of Rostov and Suzdal - around 1134.

Cultural strata of the ancient town are up to two and a half meters thick. During archeological diggings of 2009 over a thousand Old Russian artifacts have been procured.
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Info

Harvesting energy from nature's motions

Richard Merritt
Duke University
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:41 UTC
By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.

Energy harvesting is the process of converting one form of energy, such as motion, into another form of energy, in this case electricity. Strategies range from the development of massive wind farms to produce large amounts of electricity to using the vibrations of walking to power small electronic devices.
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Info

'Technology' plays large role in wealth inheritance

Bobbie Mixon
National Science Foundation
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:38 UTC
A new study reveals the important role inherited wealth plays in sustaining economic inequality in small scale societies. A team of 26 anthropologists, statisticians, and economists based at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico amassed an unprecedented data set allowing 43 estimates of a family's wealth inheritance and found that financial inequality among populations largely depends on the "technologies" that produce a people's livelihood.

According to the report, released in the October 30 edition of the journal Science, technologies differ across societies. Technologies are defined here to include everything one needs to make a living--from material things such as farms, herds and other real property, to knowledge, skills and other valuable resources.
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Chalkboard

Superstitious Beliefs Cemented Before Birth

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:16 UTC
The propensity to believe in paranormal phenomena and superstitions appears to arise in the womb, suggests new research.

The findings, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, further indicate that a reduced ability for analytical thinking may correspond with increased intuitive thinking, which has been associated with a belief in extrasensory perception (ESP), ghosts, telepathy and other paranormal phenomena.

Author Martin Voracek claims his new study's determinations "suggest (there are) biologically based, prenatally programmed influences on paranormal and superstitious beliefs."
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Telescope

Teams Observe Cosmic Explosion from Farthest Point in the Universe


USA Today
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:20 UTC
Big Bang
© NASA/Swift/Stefan ImmlerThe gamma-ray burst occurred 630 million year after the Big Bang. This image merges data from Swift's Ultraviolet) and X-Ray telescopes
Two teams have observed a huge cosmic explosion that occurred 13 billion years ago in the farthest point of the universe ever detected, the journal Nature reports.

The groups, a British team using telescopes in Hawaii, and an Italian team on the Canary Islands, both observed the burst of gamma rays.

NASA says the burst came from a star that died when the universe was only 630 million years old, or less than 5% of its present age.

The event, dubbed GRB 090423, is the most distant cosmic explosion ever seen, NASA says.

Nature says the previous record sighting was an event from 825 million years after the Big Bang.

The ground-based teams scrambled to observe the event 20 minutes after NASA's space-based Swift telescope spotted the burst in April and relayed the information to Earth.

Nature says the work by the teams "shows that astronomers can effectively probe the early universe from the ground."
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Magnify

Inequality, 'Silver Spoon' Effect Found in Ancient Societies


ScienceDaily
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:00 UTC
Sheep
© iStockphotoHerdsman and flock of sheep.
The so-called "silver spoon" effect -- in which wealth is passed down from one generation to another -- is well established in some of the world's most ancient economies, according to an international study coordinated by a UC Davis anthropologist.

The study, to be reported in the Oct. 30 issue of Science, expands economists' conventional focus on material riches, and looks at various kinds of wealth, such as hunting success, food sharing partners, and kinship networks.

The team found that some kinds of wealth, like material possessions, are much more easily passed on than social networks or foraging abilities. Societies where material wealth is most valued are therefore the most unequal, said Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, the UC Davis anthropology professor who coordinated the study with economist Samuel Bowles of the Santa Fe Institute.

The researchers also showed that levels of inequality are influenced both by the types of wealth important to a society and the governing rules and regulations. Hunter-gatherers rely on their wits, social connections and strength to make a living. In these economies, wealth inheritance is modest because wits and social connections can be transferred only to a certain degree. The level of economic inequality in hunter-gatherer societies is on a par with the most egalitarian modern democratic economies.
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Sherlock

Ireland: Remains of 1,000 People Recovered at Medieval Site


Eircom
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00 UTC
The ancient bones have produced evidence of several suspected murders and one case of leprosy - an extremely rare occurrence in medieval times.

Osteoarchaeologist Carmelita Troy, of Headland Archaeology in Cork, said yesterday she has studied the ancient remains of nearly 1,300 individuals - adult males and females along with children - who were buried at the site at Ardreigh, Athy, in Co Kildare.

It is one of the largest skeleton assemblages in the country.

It is believed the site served as a huge regional cemetery for the south Kildare region from perhaps the 7th or 8th century, with classic Christian-style burials - bodies aligned west to east - taking place right up to the 1400s.

"Through the evidence gathered from the results of these excavations, it was clear Ardreigh was a highly significant medieval site, and one that can be considered to be of regional - and probably national importance," a preliminary report on the site suggested.
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Bulb

Shrimp Eyes May Lead to Ultra-Quality DVDs


FoxNews.com
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:08 UTC
Mantis shrimp
© Roy CaldwellA juvenile Mantis shrimp. These shrimps have the most complex vision systems known to science.
The amazing eyes of a giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could hold the key to developing a new type of super high-quality DVD player, British scientists said on Sunday.

Mantis shrimps, dubbed "thumb splitters" by divers because of their vicious claws, have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom.

They can see in 12 primary colors, four times as many as humans, and can also detect different kinds of light polarization - the direction of oscillation in light waves.
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