September 14, 2006, 4:33 AM CT

Warming might affect polar bear population

Some travel agencies touting Arctic tours have been revving up their recent promotions to tourists about the increased likelihood they will spot polar bears in this region where several populations of polar bears live. As per researchers from NASA and the Canadian Wildlife Service, these increased Arctic polar bear sightings are probably correlation to retreating sea ice triggered by climate warming and not due to population increases as some may believe.

The new research suggests that progressively earlier breakup of the Arctic sea ice, stimulated by climate warming, shortens the spring hunting season for female polar bears in Western Hudson Bay and is likely responsible for the continuing fall in the average weight of these bears. As females become lighter, their ability to reproduce and the survival of their young decline. Also, as the bears become thinner, they are more likely to push into human settlements for food, giving the impression that the population is increasing. The study will be published this week in the recent issue of the Journal Arctic.

Claire Parkinson, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Ian Stirling, a senior scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, Edmonton, Alberta, used NASA satellite observations captured from 1979 to 2004 to show the reduction in sea ice cover in several specific areas where there are known polar bear populations. In most of the areas studied, they observed that ice break-up in these areas has been occurring progressively earlier.........

Posted by: Ethen      Permalink         Source

September 13, 2006, 9:58 PM CT

Viruses Switch Grip

Carbohydrates can be attractive, particularly when they come packaged in candy bars or never-ending bowls of pasta.

Even viruses - those bits of occasionally harmful genetic material enclosed in shells of protein and fat - crave carbs. Except viruses aren't seeking a taste treat. They want to latch onto the carbohydrates that protrude from the surface of our cells and mount an invasion.

By changing which carbohydrates they attach to, viruses are able to infect cells more efficiently - a finding that may prove valuable to researchers seeking ways to fight cancer or brain diseases, say University of Florida scientists writing in the current Journal of Biological Chemistry. The discovery also helps explain how flu and other viruses are able to stay a step ahead of the body's own versatile immune system.

"If you think about the flu virus, a few simple amino acid changes can be the difference between a virus your body can defend against and one that will make you sick," said Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, Ph.D., an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the UF College of Medicine and senior author of the paper. "It seems structural juxtapositions of amino acids play a role in determining how viruses recognize cells and whether the viruses are harmful".........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 13, 2006, 9:15 PM CT

Expedition to polar research

What better way to engage students in science than to apply lessons learned from fieldwork? This is the philosophy of Alaska teachers participating in the Arctic Expedition for K-12 Teachers, a program organized by the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a handful of international agencies.

For 33 days teachers from Alaska, Canada, France, Gera number of, Russia, Sweden and England will take atmospheric measurements, collect ice cores, install ice mass balance sensors and more, all under the guidance of an international team of polar researchers. Teachers and researchers will work together to collect data. Their work is based on the Kapitan Dranitsyn, an icebreaker currently cruising through the Arctic Ocean.

Todd Hindman, a teacher from Nome City School District, said This will give my students an opportunity to learn about the environment they live in, which will engage them in a meaningful way both inside and outside of the traditional classroom walls.

The experience will enhance my teaching by increasing my understanding of ocean systems, said Katie Turner, a science teacher at West Anchorage High School. It will give me real world experience and knowledge to share with my students.

The expedition advances researchers work in the fields of meteorology, biology, chemistry and oceanography. Five IARC researchers are aboard the Kapitan Dranitsyn, too, as part of the Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System (NABOS). Their aim is to better understand a flow of anomalous warm Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean. Preliminary data suggests this infusion of water from the Atlantic is increasing the temperature of the Arctic waters.........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 13, 2006, 9:11 PM CT

Clean Up With Edible Oil

Oil and water don't mix, and that could be the key to edible vegetable-based oil being the answer to contaminant clean-up.

Clemson University researchers, in conjunction with the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), are testing vegetable oil as a way to prevent contaminants from getting into groundwater aquifers. They say the method has the potential to help clean up chlorinated solvents, which are among the most common groundwater contaminants caused by industry. The study, which is taking place at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, is funded with a $35,000 grant from SRS through the South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation (SCUREF).

Clemson University geologist Larry Murdoch said the oil is injected through hydraulic fractures made 20 to 30 feet into the ground. When injected, the vegetable oil draws in oil-based contaminants that have leaked from pipes or tanks. If mixed with water, the contaminants separate as droplets, with small amounts dissolving into the water and making it hazardous. But, if another oil is introduced, the contaminants steer clear of the water, drawn instead towards the edible-oil source.

"Something else can happen to clean up the contaminants," said Murdoch. "Some microbes in the ground subsurface will degrade solvents. The edible oils create the right conditions for those kinds of microbes to flourish, so they seek out the contaminants and break them down. We hope the oil will both trap and destroy contaminants underground".........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 13, 2006, 5:15 AM CT

Iron Production through Greener Path

MIT engineers have demonstrated an eco-friendly way to make iron that eliminates the greenhouse gases commonly linked to its production.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced recently that the team, led by Donald R. Sadoway of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has shown the technical viability of producing iron by molten oxide electrolysis (MOE).

"What sets molten oxide electrolysis apart from other metal-producing technologies is that it is totally carbon-free and hence generates no carbon dioxide gases -- only oxygen," said Lawrence W. Kavanagh, AISI vice president of manufacturing and technology.

The work was funded by the AISI/Department of Energy Technology Roadmap Program (TRP). The TRP goal is to increase the competitiveness of the U.S. steel industry while saving energy and enhancing the environment. As per the AISI, the MIT work "marks one of TRP's breakthrough projects toward meeting that goal".

Unlike other iron-making processes, MOE works by passing an electric current through a liquid solution of iron oxide. The iron oxide then breaks down into liquid iron and oxygen gas, allowing oxygen to be the main byproduct of the process.

Electrolysis itself is nothing new -- all of the world's aluminum is produced this way. And that is one advantage of the new process: It is based on a technology that metallurgists are already familiar with. Unlike aluminum smelting, however, MOE is carbon-free.........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 11, 2006, 9:49 PM CT

Insights Into Research Of Sir Issac Newton

Known primarily for his foundational work in math and physics, Sir Issac Newton actually spent more time on research in alchemy, as well as its interrelationships with science, history and religion, and its implications for economics.

Alchemy, as Newton practiced it in the 17th and 18th centuries, was research into the nature of chemical substances and processes primarily the transmutation of materials from one type of matter to another. Newton and others conducted experiments, but also incorporated philosophical thought in their attempts to uncover the mysteries of the physical universe.

"Newton's extensive work on universal history (which presents human history as a coherent unit governed by certain immutable principles) provides an essential setting for linking his work on alchemy and his work heading England's mint in the 1690s," said Georgia Institute of Technology Professor Kenneth Knoespel, who chairs the School of Literature, Communication and Culture. "It is not at all farfetched to think of history as a kind of alchemical process that looks to the creation of value and wealth".

Knoespel will present an invited talk titled "Newton's alchemical work and the creation of economic value" at 9 a.m. Pacific time Sept. 11 at the American Chemical Society's 232nd national meeting in San Francisco. The talk is part of a session dedicated to scholarship based on the unpublished manuscripts of Newton, most of which are housed at the University of Cambridge and in the Edelstein Center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. For the past 15 years, Knoespel has studied both collections -- some portions of which weren't available to scholars until the 1970s.........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 7:54 AM CT

Ground movement tracking

Ground movements are responsible for hundreds of deaths and billions of Euros annually, and the threat they pose is increasing due to urbanisation and land use. ESA's GMES Service Element Programme is backing a project, Terrafirma, to help mitigate these risks.

To address these issues, Terrafirma is providing a Pan-European ground motion hazard information service to detect and monitor ground movements in relation to building stability, subsidence and ground heave, landslides, seismic activity and engineered excavations.

For over 15 years, Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) has been providing ground deformation data at centimetre precision. In the past five years, however, new ways of processing satellite radar images have been developed using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) that allow ground movements over wide areas to be detected and monitored with even greater sensitivity.

Recent statistics show that 50% of the world population already live in cities, and megacities (over 10 million) are now commonplace. As the trend toward urbanisation continues, most major towns will undergo construction to accommodate new developments for newcomers.

New construction requires solid foundations to avoid costly planning mistakes, and underground works and metro-tunnelling have some surface effect that needs remediation and monitoring. The Terrafirma services can provide information to locate low-risk foundation sites and help save money on the remediation of existing structures.........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 7:49 AM CT

One of smallest stellar companions

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have photographed one of the smallest objects ever seen around a normal star beyond our Sun. Weighing in at 12 times the mass of Jupiter, the object is small enough to be a planet. The riddle is that it is also large enough to be a brown dwarf, a failed star.

The Hubble observation of the diminutive companion to the low-mass red dwarf star CHRX 73 is a dramatic reminder that astronomers do not have a consensus in deciding which objects orbiting other stars are truly planets - even though they have recently provided the definition of 'planet' for objects inside our Solar System.

Kevin Luhman of Penn State University, USA, leader of the international team that found the object (called CHRX 73 'B') is casting his vote for a brown dwarf. "New, more sensitive telescopes are finding smaller and smaller objects of planetary-mass size," said Luhman. "These discoveries have prompted astronomers to ask the question, are planetary-mass companions always planets?".

Some astronomers suggest that an extra-solar object's mass determines whether it is a planet. Luhman and others advocate that an object is only a planet if it formed from the disk of gas and dust that usually encircles a newborn star. Our Solar System planets formed 4.6 thousand million years ago out of a dust disk around our Sun.........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 5:32 AM CT

Methods For Analyzing Protein Interactions

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, an online journal that publishes methods used in a wide range of biology laboratories, has added over 40 new peer-reviewed protocols to its archive today. The new collection highlights two techniques for characterizing protein interactions, which will aid many cell and molecular biologists--including those who seek to identify the molecular basis of human diseases. Both of these methods are freely accessible from the journal's website: www.cshprotocols.org

Given the importance of characterizing the molecular networks and signaling pathways that form the biological basis of all living organisms, techniques aimed at probing protein interactions have come to the forefront in recent years. The new methods published recently by CSH Protocols will be useful for researchers seeking to identify the molecular partners--such as other proteins or DNA--to which specific proteins bind.

The featured protocols describe how proteins of interest can be labeled with detectable markers and then used to probe thousands of different DNA and protein sequences. The protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions that are identified will eventually be useful for tracking down the causes of diseases, as well as for designing new drugs to aid in their prevention and treatment.........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source

September 7, 2006, 9:13 PM CT

Army Of Cells To Repair Injury

To speed healing at sites of injury - such as heart muscle after a heart attack or brain tissue after a stroke - doctors would like to be able to hasten the formation of new blood vessels. One promising approach is to "mobilize" patients' blood vessel-forming cells, called angiogenic cells, so these cells can reach the injured area.

Recently, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis demonstrated that a drug called AMD3100 can mobilize angiogenic cells from bone marrow of human patients in a matter of hours instead of days, as was the case with a related agent called G-CSF.

Angiogenic cells reside mainly in the bone marrow, and when mobilized they can circulate in the bloodstream, homing to sites of injury and helping repair and regrow blood vessels that bring oxygen and nutrients to tissues.

"Like AMD3100, G-CSF can bring these beneficial cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream, but with G-CSF you don't see an increase in angiogenic cells until the fourth day," says senior author Daniel C. Link, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology. "In a patient who has had a heart attack, that may be too late. In fact, two clinical trials of G-SCF found the treatment doesn't improve recovery from heart attacks".........

Posted by: Beverly      Permalink         Source