Science & Technology

NASA animation shows the dramatic increase in near-Earth asteroids entering solar system over last 20 years

RT
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 18:02 UTC

A mesmerising - and alarming - new animation from NASA demonstrates just how dramatic the increase in near-Earth asteroids entering our Solar System has become over the last 20 years.

The video, based on data gathered by the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, shows the huge surge of space rocks hurtling towards the inner Solar System.

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets in orbits that come within 121 million miles (195 million km) of the sun, and also within roughly 30 million miles of Earth's orbit around our star.

New discovery: Mars found to have underground 'lake' at south pole

RT
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:48 UTC

Scientists have discovered what they believe is a lake hidden below a mile of ice at the south pole of Mars. The water was detected by radar and is situated below the southern polar ice cap of the red planet.

The discovery was unveiled in a study conducted by the Italian Space Agency. The evidence comes from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument (MARSIS) which is on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft.

The instrument uses pulses of radar to study the interior structure of the planet and has been orbiting Mars on the Mars Express European spacecraft since 2003.

Comment:

New tools making it possible to observe 'circumgalactic medium' - galaxies' fuel source and recycling center

Lisa Grossman
Science News
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 15:49 UTC

© M.S. PEEPLES ET AL/FOGGIE PROJECT
Whirls of cold and hot gas billow in this simulation of a circumgalactic medium surrounding a galaxy. With new tools and simulations, researchers have learned that the CGM helps a galaxy recycle its materials.

There's more to a galaxy than meets the eye. Galaxies' bright stars seem to spiral serenely against the dark backdrop of space. But a more careful look reveals a whole lot of mayhem.

"Galaxies are just like you and me," Jessica Werk, an astronomer at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in January at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. "They live their lives in a constant state of turmoil."

Much of that turmoil takes place in a huge, complicated setting called the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. This vast, roiling cloud of dust and gas is a galaxy's fuel source, waste dump and recycling center all in one. Astronomers think the answers to some of the most pressing galactic mysteries - how galaxies keep forming new stars for billions of years, why star formation abruptly stops - are hidden in a galaxy's enveloping CGM.

"To understand the galaxies, you have to understand the ecosystem that they're in," says astronomer Molly Peeples of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Yet this galactic atmosphere is so diffuse that it's invisible - a liter of CGM contains just a single atom. It has taken almost 60 years and an upgrade to the Hubble Space Telescope just to begin probing distant CGMs and figuring out how their constant churning can make or break galaxies.

The case of the Arctic Wolf Spider: Warmer climates don't necessarily wreck the ecosystem as it self regulates

Eric Worrall
Watts Up With That?
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 11:58 UTC

A climate scientist doing fieldwork has made the shocking discovery that, contrary to predictions, the Earth's ecosystems might have some capacity for self regulation.

CLIMATE CHANGE MAKES SPIDERS BIGGER - AND THAT'S A GOOD THING

BY THERESA MACHEMER 24 JULY 2018

High temperatures make arctic wolf spiders ditch their favorite food, indirectly helping the environment.

THE ARCTIC TUNDRA is teeming with predators, just not the ones you might expect: By biomass, arctic wolf spiders outweigh arctic wolves by at least 80-to-1.

The eye-popping calculation, published today in PNAS by National Geographic explorer Amanda Koltz, could shape our understanding of how the Arctic will respond to future climate change.

Her study reveals that at increased temperatures and population densities, arctic wolf spiders change their eating habits, starting an ecosystem-wide cascade that could change how quickly melting permafrost decomposes.

...

In higher temperatures, decomposition occurs more quickly and wolf spiders are more active, so Koltz expected that when her mini-ecosystems got warmer, their wolf spiders would drastically reduce the springtail population. But Koltz found just the opposite.

In plots with more spiders, the spiders actually ate fewer springtails. These larger springtail populations then ate more fungus, which lowered the rate of decomposition. Among the hotter plots, the one with more spiders decomposed less than plots with almost no spiders. In a way, the spiders are helping to fight climate change in the arctic tundra.

The unexpected find has drawn praise from experts. "The novelty of Dr. Koltz's paper is that it shows not only is [climate change] having direct impacts on these important ground dwelling animals but also on the complex ecological interactions between species on the tundra," Joseph Bowden, an entomologist with the Canadian Forest Service who was not involved with Koltz's research, says by email.

...

Methane hydrate - the great killer responsible for Earth's biggest mass extinction

Uwe Brand et al.
Science Direct
Sat, 02 Jul 2016 19:39 UTC

The Great Permian Extinction:
The synapsid Lystrosaurus survived the extinction and dominated the landscape afterwards

Abstract

The cause for the end Permian mass extinction, the greatest challenge life on Earth faced in its geologic history, is still hotly debated by scientists. The most significant marker of this event is the negative δ13C shift and rebound recorded in marine carbonates with a duration ranging from 2,000 to 19,000 years depending on localities and sedimentation rates. Leading causes for the event are Siberian trap volcanism and the emission of greenhouse gases with consequent global warming. Measurements of gases vaulted in calcite of end Permian brachiopods and whole rock document significant differences in normal atmospheric equilibrium concentration in gases between modern and end Permian seawaters.

The gas composition of the end Permian brachiopod-inclusions reflects dramatically higher seawater carbon dioxide and methane contents leading up to the biotic event. Initial global warming of 8-11 °C sourced by isotopically light carbon dioxide from volcanic emissions triggered the release of isotopically lighter methane from permafrost and shelf sediment methane hydrates. Consequently, the huge quantities of methane emitted into the atmosphere and the oceans accelerated global warming and marked the negative δ13C spike observed in marine carbonates, documenting the onset of the mass extinction period.

The rapidity of the methane hydrate emission lasting from several years to thousands of years was tempered by the equally rapid oxidation of the atmospheric and oceanic methane that gradually reduced its warming potential but not before global warming had reached levels lethal to most life on land and in the oceans. Based on measurements of gases trapped in biogenic and abiogenic calcite, the release of methane (of ∼3-14% of total C stored) from permafrost and shelf sediment methane hydrate is deemed the ultimate source and cause for the dramatic life-changing global warming (GMAT > 34 °C) and oceanic negative-carbon isotope excursion observed at the end Permian. Global warming triggered by the massive release of carbon dioxide may be catastrophic, but the release of methane from hydrate may be apocalyptic. The end Permian holds an important lesson for humanity regarding the issue it faces today with greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and climate change.

Comment: Looks like we're in for a wild ride:

Latest study says dogs feel empathy for human suffering

Kimberly Riskas
Cosmos Magazine
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 18:57 UTC

Dogs who hurry to comfort their owners may be doing so out of empathy, according to a study published in the journal Learning & Behavior.

Not only can dogs perceive changes in human emotional states, but man's best friend will take it a step further and overcome physical obstacles to go to an owner's aid.

Humans and dogs share a strong emotional bond arising from domestication over tens of thousands of years. But despite many popular anecdotes of dog heroism, the scientific evidence for dogs providing actual help to a human in need is mixed.

By showing that dogs will perform an action to help a person in distress, the new study advances our knowledge of canine empathy and cross-species helping behaviour more generally.

In a series of tests led by then-undergraduate Emily Sanford of Macalester College, 34 dogs were evaluated for empathetic behaviour using the trapped-other paradigm, an experimental design previously used only in rats.

Artificial humans? Scientists create embryo-like structures in the lab

RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 18:33 UTC

A Cambridge University team of scientists have move taken a step further in creating artificial embryos using mouse stem cells to manufacture structures capable of taking a critical step in the development of life.

Researchers at Cambridge University built the structures from scratch, and bypassed the act of fertilisation by growing them in the laboratory.

Although the cells used came from mice, the experiment has opened up a pandora's box of major ethical implications for embryo research, as attempting to create a baby from such a technique would be outlawed in Britain. One expert said any artificial embryos made from human stem cells would have to be subject to an "ethical discussion," reports the Irish News.

It's thought that this research will enable scientists to unlock the mysteries of early human development.

Professor Magdalena Zernica-Goetz led the Cambridge University team which had previously used two types of stem cell and a "jelly" scaffold to formulate a simpler structure.

Tremors nudge Washington state westward offering clues into the next big earthquake

Sarah Wu
The Seattle Times
Sat, 21 Jul 2018 06:00 UTC

The Pacific Northwest last saw a big earthquake about 300 years ago. Scientists widely expect the region to experience a similar event every 500 years on average.

Thousands of tiny tremors over the past few months have moved parts of Washington and Vancouver Island westward. It's a near annual event that backs expectations by some scientists that a big earthquake may hit the Seattle area harder than their previous models suggested.

This recent wave of activity began in May and appears to be dying off now, according to University of Washington earth-sciences professor Ken Creager. It's a process, known as episodic tremor and slip, thought to increase stress on locked faults - areas where tectonic plates cannot move past each other. Earthquakes occur when the pressure on locked zones reaches the breaking point and the plates snap past each other.

Not as precise or safe as we thought: CRISPR genome editing can cause big deletions or rearrangements of DNA

Michael Le Page
New Scientist
Mon, 16 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC

Bradley’s team has found that in around a fifth of cells, CRISPR causes deletions or rearrangements more than 100 DNA letters long. These surprising changes are sometimes thousands of letters long.

A study of CRIPSR suggests we shouldn't rush into trying out CRISPR genome editing inside people's bodies just yet. The technique can cause big deletions or rearrangements of DNA, says Allan Bradley of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK, meaning some therapies based on CRISPR may not be quite as safe as we thought.

The CRISPR genome editing technique is revolutionising biology, enabling us to create new varieties of plants and animals and develop treatments for a wide range of diseases.

The CRISPR Cas9 protein works by cutting the DNA of a cell in a specific place. When the cell repairs the damage, a few DNA letters get changed at this spot - an effect that can be exploited to disable genes.

At least, that's how it is supposed to work. But in studies of mice and human cells, Bradley's team has found that in around a fifth of cells, CRISPR causes deletions or rearrangements more than 100 DNA letters long. These surprising changes are sometimes thousands of letters long.

Comment: God's red pencil? CRISPR and the myths of precise genome editing

Why is this discussion of precision important? Because for the last seventy years all chemical and biological technologies, from genetic engineering to pesticides, have been built on a myth of precision and specificity. They have all been adopted under the pretense that they would function without side effects or unexpected complications. Yet the extraordinary disasters and repercussions of DDT, leaded paint, agent orange, atrazine, C8, asbestos, chlordane, PCBs, and so on, when all is said and done, have been stories of the steady unraveling of a founding myth of precision and specificity.

UK ethics panel gives cautious green-light to DNA altered babies

Ian Sample
The Guardian
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 06:01 UTC

The creation of babies whose DNA has been altered to give them what parents perceive to be the best chances in life has received a cautious green light in a landmark report from a leading UK ethics body.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics said that changing the DNA of a human embryo could be "morally permissible" if it was in the future child's interests and did not add to the kinds of inequalities that already divide society.

The report does not call for a change in UK law to permit genetically altered babies, but instead urges research into the safety and effectiveness of the approach, its societal impact, and a widespread debate of its implications.

"It is our view that genome editing is not morally unacceptable in itself," said Karen Yeung, chair of the Nuffield working group and professor of law, ethics and informatics at the University of Birmingham. "There is no reason to rule it out in principle."

But the report drew immediate criticism from some quarters, with one lobby group accusing the authors of opening the door to the unrestricted use of heritable genetic engineering, and an age of genetic haves and have-nots.

Comment: Meanwhile, scientists and researchers haven't been waiting for ethics committees to opine on the morality of DNA editing; they're going full steam ahead and to hell with the consequences:

Big Tech cancels Alex Jones, Anglin, countless others. Outcry ignored. Evil bastards. All above: Great comments! R.C.

Rowan Cocoan

AA article on some German soccer player who the malevolents are griping about because he doesn't trust the science, no long term data, etc. German...

Rowan Cocoan

DNA collection doesn't mean anything, DNA doesn't survive outside of a cell. Since I couldn't get access to the study, I will guess they are...

hotfood

It's only censorship if you are on one side of the political spectrum, is that it?

ReRan

25 Years for malum prohibitum crimes - and that don't sound like crimes at all; more like drunks bragging. Big terror ring there.(Sarcasm.) All...

Rowan Cocoan

Science & Technology

NASA animation shows the dramatic increase in near-Earth asteroids entering solar system over last 20 years

New discovery: Mars found to have underground 'lake' at south pole

New tools making it possible to observe 'circumgalactic medium' - galaxies' fuel source and recycling center

The case of the Arctic Wolf Spider: Warmer climates don't necessarily wreck the ecosystem as it self regulates

Methane hydrate - the great killer responsible for Earth's biggest mass extinction

Latest study says dogs feel empathy for human suffering

Artificial humans? Scientists create embryo-like structures in the lab

Tremors nudge Washington state westward offering clues into the next big earthquake

Not as precise or safe as we thought: CRISPR genome editing can cause big deletions or rearrangements of DNA

UK ethics panel gives cautious green-light to DNA altered babies

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