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Large Methane Release Could Cause Abrupt Climate Change As Happened 635 Million Years Ago


Science Daily
Thu, 29 May 2008 13:03 UTC
An abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, about 635 million years ago from ice sheets that then extended to Earth's low latitudes caused a dramatic shift in climate, triggering a series of events that resulted in global warming and effectively ended the last "snowball" ice age, a UC Riverside-led study reports.

sea cliff exposures at Marino Rocks, South Australia
©M. Kennedy, UC Riverside
Geologists Chris von der Borch (front) and David Mrofka (back) look for evidence of ancient methane seepage within tidal sediments seen in sea cliff exposures at Marino Rocks, South Australia.

The researchers posit that the methane was released gradually at first and then in abundance from clathrates -- methane ice that forms and stabilizes beneath ice sheets under specific temperatures and pressures. When the ice sheets became unstable, they collapsed, releasing pressure on the clathrates which began to degas.

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Pharoah

Archaeologists unearth remains of largest ancient Egyptian fortified city in northern Sinai

AP
pr-inside.com
Wed, 28 May 2008 20:03 UTC
CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists have unearthed 3,000-year-old remains of the largest ancient Egyptian fortified city while exploring an old military road in Sinai that once connected Egypt to Palestine, the antiquities authority said Wednesday.

Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that archaeologists unearthed a relief of King Thutmose II (1516-1504 B.C.), thought to be the first such royal monument found in Sinai. It indicates that Thutmose II may have built a fort in the area.

Comment: Curious that this would indicate that an Egyptian military base was active around Palestine around the time of the alleged parting of the Red Sea, yet nothing like it is ever mentioned in the Old Testament. One might think that a military base in your backyard occupied by soldiers from the country you've just fled would at least merit a footnote.

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Cow

Gladstone scientists reveal the genetics of fat storage in cells


The Hindu
Fri, 23 May 2008 23:21 UTC
New research by the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has revealed the genetic determinants of fat storage in cells, which may lead to a new understanding of and potential treatments for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. While scientists have long understood that lipid droplets contribute to fat build up in cells, the genes involved in droplet biology have been a focus of extensive research, according to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Telescope

Upcoming gamma-ray mission may detect dark matter

David Shiga
New Scientist
Tue, 27 May 2008 18:13 UTC
A new NASA satellite with powerful gamma-ray vision is set to launch on 3 June. It will observe the deaths of massive stars, probe the gamma-ray sky for unknown objects, and might even pin down the nature of the mysterious dark matter that pervades the universe.

The $700 million Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is set to launch into low-Earth orbit at 1145 EDT (1645 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, US. It carries a gamma-ray telescope of unprecedented sensitivity and a monitor that can detect radiation from violent cosmic events called gamma-ray bursts.

The mission will provide the first detailed survey of the sky in a largely unexplored part of the energy spectrum of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of radiation.
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Pharoah

Archaeologists find ancient army HQ in Sinai

Jonathan Wright
Reuters
Wed, 28 May 2008 13:22 UTC
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered what they say was the ancient headquarters of the Pharaonic army guarding the northeastern borders of Egypt for more than 1,500 years, the government said on Wednesday.

The fortress and adjoining town, which they identify with the ancient place name Tharu, lies in the Sinai peninsula about 3 km (2 miles) northeast of the modern town of Qantara, Egyptian archaeologist Mohamed Abdel Maksoud told Reuters.

The town sat at the start of a military road joining the Nile Valley to the Levant, parts of which were under Egyptian control for much of the period, the government's Supreme Council for Antiquities said in a statement.
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Star

Student stargazers spot 'killer' asteroids


The Associated Press
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:22 UTC
AMERICAN FORK -- Three American Fork High School are earning accolades for their stargazing.

Bryce Tholl, Clinton McClesky and Karlee Craig identified a combined four asteroids as part of a NASA program tied to their astronomy class.
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Better Earth

Seattle researchers report rising ocean acidity


The Associated Press
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:10 UTC
SEATTLE -- Acidic water is appearing along the Pacific Coast decades earlier than expected, apparently the result of climate change as carbon dioxide turns the ocean more corrosive, scientists have reported.

In surveys from Vancouver Island in Canada to the tip of Baja California in Mexico, scientists reported finding the first evidence of acidic sea water in large quantities along the continental shelf, the shallow zone where most marine creatures live.
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Syringe

New DNA evidence overturns population migration theory in Island Southeast Asia


Physorg.com
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:06 UTC
An international research team has discovered new DNA evidence to overturn conventional theories that suggest that the present-day populations of Island Southeast Asia (covering the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo) came from Taiwan 4,000 years ago.
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Attention

Dutch scientists claim to map female genome


AFP
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:01 UTC
THE HAGUE - Dutch scientists said Monday they had mapped the full genetic sequence of a woman for the first time.

"It's the first woman in the world and the first European whose DNA sequence will be made public," the researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre in the western Netherlands said in a statement.
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Magnify

Authentic Viking DNA Retrieved From 1,000-year-old Skeletons


Science Daily
Tue, 27 May 2008 20:54 UTC
Although "Viking" literally means "pirate," recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study, Jørgen Dissing and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers.

Viking teeth
©Melchior L et al. Evidence of Authentic DNA from Danish Viking Age Skeletons Untouched by Humans for 1,000 Years. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002214
Sampling of teeth for aDNA analysis. The last layer of soil was removed and two teeth extracted while wearing full body suit, hairnet, gloves, shoe covers, and face masks. The teeth were placed in sealed sterile tubes and transported to the aDNA-lab.
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