NASA Returns to the Moon with Lunar Recon Orbiter

NASA's upcoming robotic mission to the Moon will set some basic signposts for human exploration there far into the future, while giving Earthbound scientists a much better view of the distant past.

Developed by the U.S. space agency's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate as a source of detailed maps for the Moon base already in development, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will join orbiters from China, India and Japan in producing the best look ever at Earth's natural satellite.

Exploration planners at NASA headquarters here and at the Constellation program office in Houston will use data from the 12-month mapping mission to begin picking a site for the human outpost that is the current U.S. human-exploration goal by 2020.

Scientists looking at the same data, which will offer unprecedented detail of terrain, slopes and solar illumination across the entire surface of the Moon, will begin gaining new answers to questions about its origins in a shattering collision between Earth and a Mars-size body, and the subsequent history of the inner Solar System.

Among the first questions to be answered will be how much the lunar surface has changed since the 1960s, when the Apollo program mapped the areas where the first astronauts landed.

"We want to image some of the area mapped by the Apollo program with our high-resolution camera in order to see how many impacts have occurred there in the past 30 years, and that will help us to improve the understanding of the meteor flux onto the Moon," says Richard Vondrak, LRO project scientist and deputy director of the Solar System Exploration Div. at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

That data and the reams to follow as LRO maps the full lunar surface with its seven instruments will join a growing body of new knowledge about the Moon that started with the European Space Agency's Smart-1 mission in 2004-06 and continues with data collected by Japan's Kaguya (Selene), China's Chang'e and India's Chandrayaan-1.

Part of what I find so damned kewl about all this is that there is such an international fleet of orbiters right now. There's a palatable sense of competition and cooperation going on here. I tend to favor competing over cooperating on projects primarily because it breeds better results. With some cooperation, it gets even better. However, abandoning competition often breeds outright failure or massive disappointment.

Kepler to Launch (Now That's Resolution)

NASA's Kepler mission to answer the question of how common Earth-like planets are in the galaxy is set for a March 6 liftoff from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

There are two launch windows: 10:49 to 10:52 p.m. and 11:13 to 11:16 p.m. EST. The 2,320-pound spacecraft from Ball Aerospace will be lofted by a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7925-10L into an Earth-trailing orbit from which it can view some 100,000 sun-like stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way.

Putting it a 10th of an astronomical unit - 9 million miles - behind Earth will keep the spacecraft free of the planet's gravitational field and assure that it will have uninterrupted viewing. The total mission cost is $591 million.

Principal Scientist William Borucki of NASA Ames Research Center pushed for a planet survey for decades but had to wait for advances in photometric technology to catch up with his vision.

Planets are virtually invisible next to very bright suns, so detecting them requires an instrument with high sensitivity. Kepler's photometer can detect changes in brightness of just 20 parts per mission, which should make it perfect for spotting the planets as they pass in front of their host stars.

The spacecraft's telescope has a 1.4-meter (4.6-foot) primary mirror with a 0.95-meter aperture and a very wide 105-degree field of view. Its target stars were chosen from 4.3 million suns within its viewing area.

Kepler's imaging system uses 42 charge-coupled devices with a total of 95 million pixels. Hubble's Wide Field & Planetary Camera 2 has 4 CCDs and 640,000 pixels.

See what I mean? Over three orders of magnitude in pixels more! I hope everything works well!

The Undead Pseudogene

Researchers have discovered that a long-defunct gene was resurrected during the course of human evolution. This is believed to be the first evidence of a doomed gene – infection-fighting human IRGM – making a comeback in the human/great ape lineage. The study, led by Evan Eichler's genome science laboratory at the University of Washington and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is published March 6 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

The truncated IRGM gene is one of only two genes of its type remaining in humans. The genes are Immune-Related GTPases, a kind of gene that helps mammals resist germs like tuberculosis and salmonella that try to invade cells. Unlike humans, most other mammals have several genes of this type. Mice, for example, have 21 Immune-Related GTPases. Medical interest in this gene ignited recently, when scientists associated specific IRGM mutations with the risk of Crohn's disease, an inflammatory digestive disorder.

In this latest study, the researchers reconstructed the evolutionary history of the IRGM locus within primates. They found that most of the gene cluster was eliminated by going from multiple copies to a sole copy early in primate evolution, approximately 50 million years ago. Comparisons of Old World and New World monkey species suggest that the remaining copy died in their common ancestor.

The gene remnant continued to be inherited through millions of years of evolution. Then, in the common ancestor of humans and great apes, something unexpected happened. Once again the gene could be read to produce proteins. Evidence suggests that this change coincided with a retrovirus insertion in the ancestral genome.

"The IRGM gene was dead and later resurrected through a complex series of structural events," Eichler said. "These findings tell us that we shouldn't count a gene out until it is completely deleted."

kewl! After I learned about pseudogenes (aka 'fossil' genes) fairly recently - yes, my genetics knowledge is not what I'd like it to be! - I guessed that this might be possible.

One of the other bits that I am hypothesizing is that, if the basal archosaurs were endothermic and the birds retain that, then there is a strong case that the crocodilians have a corresponding pseudogene (or pseudogenes) related to metabolism that can be hunted for. If it was found, it would confirm a lot about the evolution of archosaurs. This could be one of those awesome intersections of disciplines.

Oh, on the original article, Not Exactly Rocket Science also has a write up.

I Can Always Tell...

...when it's time for midterms or finals. My traffic to the blog climbs from around 300/day to well over 400 and sometimes past 500. As of last night it was 449 for the previous 24 hours. That brings me to 56,769 visitors since July 22 and 144,666 since July 22, 2006 when I started tracking.

I get the undergrad surge!

Yucca Mountain Project to be Shuttered?

For two decades, a ridge of volcanic rock 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas known as Yucca Mountain has been the sole focus of government plans to store highly radioactive nuclear waste.

Not anymore.

Despite the $13.5 billion that has been spent on the project, the Obama administration says it's going in a different direction.

It slashed funding for Yucca Mountain in its recently announced budget.

And on Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing that the Yucca Mountain site no longer was viewed as an option for storing reactor waste, brushing aside criticism from several Republican lawmakers.

Instead, Chu said the Obama administration believes the nearly 60,000 tons of used reactor fuel can remain at nuclear power plants while a new, comprehensive plan for waste disposal is developed.

[...]

Obama's 2010 budget calls for scrapping all spending on Yucca Mountain except for what is needed to answer questions from the NRC on the license application "while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear waste disposal."

*sighs*

Now I'm torn here.

There have been some less than reassuring bits coming out of the Yucca Mountain Project. There are a few geology 'hmmms.' However, some of that is equivocal.

On the other hand, this is a case of without this, the nuke industry restart will stall at best. Nuclear waste needs a long term solution. In 4, 8 years we're not likely to have a replacement for burying it, unless Dr Chu has an ace up his sleeve. (which I doubt) Since this is one of the known technology ways we can fight global warming, it's rather depressing that Obama has decided to go this route.

Someone's gonna get 'screwed.' NM has already taken in the WIPP. NV, being one of the least populated and uninhabitable states, needs to pony up.

However, my irritation and depression from this decision aside: Senator McCain, knock-off the "Mr Chu" bit. While Chu doesn't have PhD-itis, if you want to be formal with him, the man's damn well earned his doctorate and a Nobel Prize. Some modicum of respect is required and has been freakin earned. Dr Chu it ought to be. Or should we start referring to you as 'Mr McCain' from now on?

Mexican Cretaceous Sea Turtle Fossil Found

Paleontologists on Thursday unveiled the oldest fossil remains of a sea turtle that lived 72 million years ago in northern Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.

"It is the oldest sea turtle of its kind and it belongs to the chelonia family. The oldest specimen of this species up to now was 65 million years old and was found in New Jersey, United States," the INAH said in a statement.

The fossils of seven sea turtles were found at different sites in Coahuila, the state that Mexican scientists call "the paradise of paleontology."

I presume that this is a oldest modern sea turtle...

Oldest Domesticated Horses Found

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the earliest known evidence of horses being domesticated by humans. The discovery suggests that horses were both ridden and milked. The findings could point to the very beginnings of horse domestication and the origins of the horse breeds we know today. Led by the Universities of Exeter and Bristol (UK), the research is published on Friday 6 March 2009 in leading academic journal Science.

The researchers have traced the origins of horse domestication back to the Botai Culture of Kazakhstan circa 5,500 years ago. This is about 1,000 years earlier than thought and about 2,000 years earlier than domestic horses are known to have been in Europe. Their findings strongly suggest that horses were originally domesticated, not just for riding, but also to provide food, including milk.

Through extensive archaeological fieldwork and subsequent analysis, using new techniques, the team developed three independent lines of evidence for early horse domestication. Their findings show that in the fourth millennium BC horses in Kazakhstan were being selectively bred for domestic use. They also show horses were being harnessed, possibly for riding, and that people were consuming horse milk.

Analysis of ancient bone remains showed that the horses were similar in shape to Bronze Age domestic horses and different from wild horses from the same region. This suggests that people were selecting wild horses for their physical attributes, which were then exaggerated through breeding.

The team used a new technique to search for 'bit damage' caused by horses being harnessed or bridled. The results showed that horses had indeed been harnessed, suggesting they could have been ridden.

Using a novel method of lipid residue analysis, the researchers also analysed Botai pottery and found traces of fats from horse milk. Mare's milk is still drunk in Kazakhstan, a country in which horse traditions run deep, and is usually fermented into a slightly alcoholic drink called 'koumiss'. While it was known that koumiss had been produced for centuries, this study shows the practice dates back to the very earliest horse herders.

Lead author Dr Alan Outram of the University of Exeter said: "The domestication of horses is known to have had immense social and economic significance, advancing communications, transport, food production and warfare. Our findings indicate that horses were being domesticated about 1,000 years earlier than previously thought. This is significant because it changes our understanding of how these early societies developed."

Ridden and milked. It makes me wonder if there were not multiple independent attempts at domesticating animals based on what was locally available. Horses, goats, cattle, etc all in different places and then trade, as people came in contact with one another, spread the varieties around. It'd be interesting if there were some way to test, genetically, if those horses are related to our horses. Or if it was an separate attempt from the lineage that survives today.

Come Join The Accented Discussion!

Noel Maurer, economist exemplar and general good guy, has an interesting discussion started up on the accents that his readers have: it started as discussing the Brooklyn accent. I strongly recommend that anyone that can, go participate. Noel's pretty forgiving of looking silly, so don't be shy. Right now it seems to be confined to Yanqi and Canucks, but I know I have Brits and others that read my blog, too.

If you find linguistics interesting, by all means go take a look.

Russia Working on ASATs to Match US, China?

Russia is working to develop anti-satellite weapons to match efforts by other nations, a deputy defense minister was quoted as saying Thursday.

Gen. Valentin Popovkin said Russia continues to oppose a space arms race but will respond to moves made by other countries, according to Russian news reports.

"We can't sit back and quietly watch others doing that, such work is being conducted in Russia," Popovkin was quoted as saying.

Russia already has some "basic, key elements" of such weapons, but refused to elaborate, Popovkin said.

Popovkin, who previously was the chief of Russian military Space Forces, reportedly made the statement at a news conference in response to a question about U.S. and Chinese tests of anti-satellite weapons.

How much of this is Russian me-too-ism, IDK. However, it ought to be noted that the Soviet Union had a very functional coorbital ASAT system and some satellite blinding lasers (supposedly): how much is still viable, IDK, but possibly not much at all. It ought to be noted that the power needed for blinding lasers (temporary blinding) is not much. It's more a pointer-tracker accuracy problem than a laser output issue: it's just like shining a spot light in someone's face...just further away.

Basal Theropods Had Bird Hands

Two handprints pressed into the mud of an ancient lakeshore 198 million years ago has given paleontologists new insights into the anatomy and evolution of early carnivorous dinosaurs. The theropod who crouched down had a bird-like forelimb structure with palms that always faced inwards, says lead researcher Andrew Milner, which indicates that they stopped using their forelimbs for walking early in their evolutionary history.

The handprints discovered in Utah are part of a larger track that clearly show the hind feet and, occasionally, the dragging tail. But at one point, Milner said, the theropod apparently stopped and crouched to rest. At that point, between the footprints, is the clear circular impression of the ischium or pelvis, “basically a butt print,” Milner said. And to each side of the tracks are the handprints, which are mirror images of each other. They clearly show the third digit pressed into the ground and traces of the second digit, with the claw curling inward. The hands were positioned as they would be for “holding on to a basketball rather than dribbling it,” [Los Angeles Times], comments paleontologist Tom Holtz, who wasn’t involved in the research.

The new study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, indicates that the unidentified species of theropod couldn’t turn the palms of its hands face down or face up like a human, but could bend them back against the arm similar to how a bird folds its wings. Jerry Harris, who coauthored the paper, said being able to fold the hands against the arms evolved before feathery wings — and at a time earlier than the period normally associated with theropods.

Sarah at Gombessa Girl has two posts on the subject. She knows the people involved and helped out to some extent it seems. Some interesting evolutionary implications here. I wonder how the "birds are not dinosaurs!!!" crowd are going to react? heh.

More Hardy's Paradox Observations

In quantum mechanics, a vanguard of physics where science often merges into philosophy, much of our understanding is based on conjecture and probabilities, but a group of researchers in Japan has moved one of the fundamental paradoxes in quantum mechanics into the lab for experimentation and observed some of the 'spooky action of quantum mechanics' directly.

Hardy's Paradox, the axiom that we cannot make inferences about past events that haven't been directly observed while also acknowledging that the very act of observation affects the reality we seek to unearth, poses a conundrum that quantum physicists have sought to overcome for decades. How do you observe quantum mechanics, atomic and sub-atomic systems that are so small-scale they cannot be described in classical terms, when the act of looking at them changes them permanently?

In a journal paper published in the New Journal of Physics, 'Direct observation of Hardy's paradox by joint weak measurement with an entangled photon pair', today, Wednesday, 4 March, authored by Kazuhiro Yokota, Takashi Yamamoto, Masato Koashi and Nobuyuki Imoto from the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University and the CREST Photonic Quantum Information Project in Kawaguchi City, the research group explains how they used a measurement technique that has an almost imperceptible impact on the experiment which allows the researchers to compile objectively provable results at sub-atomic scales.

The experiment, based on Lucien Hardy's thought experiment, which follows the paths of two photons using interferometers, instruments that can be used to interfere photons together, is believed to throw up contradictory results that do not conform to our classical understanding of reality. Although Hardy's Paradox is rarely refuted, it was only a thought experiment until recently.

Using an entangled pair of photons and an original but complicated method of weak measurement that does not interfere with the path of the photons, a significant step towards harnessing the reality of quantum mechanics has been taken by these researchers in Japan.

Summoning Alden...Where are you these days? Still at CERN or ...?

Giggle Factor: Panarin Claims US to Collapse By 2011

If you're inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn't mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order.

Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership.

"There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010," Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy — a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend.

The prediction from Panarin, a former spokesman for Russia's Federal Space Agency and reportedly an ex-KGB analyst, meshes with the negative view of the U.S. that has been flowing from the Kremlin in recent years, in particular from Vladimir Putin.

Putin, the former president who is now prime minister, has likened the United States to Nazi Germany's Third Reich and blames Washington for the global financial crisis that has pounded the Russian economy.

Panarin didn't give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources.

He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now.

But he said the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. and other "social and cultural phenomena" led him to nail down a specific timeframe for "The End" — when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control.

Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men.

Turning to economic woes, he cited the slide in major stock indexes, the decline in U.S. gross domestic product and Washington's bailout of banking giant Citigroup as evidence that American dominance of global markets has collapsed.

"I was there recently and things are far from good," he said. "What's happened is the collapse of the American dream."

Panarin insisted he didn't wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar.

I can't help thinking that this is more wish fulfillment and projection going on here. This guy is obviously very disturbed on some fundamental level that he's mistaking what he wants for what is. I really want to annex Mexico and return to an expansionist foreign policy, of sorts, but I also recognize that this is not a realistically likely scenario. However, this guy...oy. The fact that he's in the position he's in and the Russians seem to be at least pretending to listen to him...huh, that's all I'll say. At best, huh.

Asked for comment on how the Foreign Ministry views Panarin's theories, a spokesman said all questions had to be submitted in writing and no answers were likely before Wednesday.

Oh that is sooooo Russian.

Global Warming's Effect on Tropical Lizards

From geckos and iguanas to Gila monsters and Komodo dragons, lizards are among the most common reptiles on Earth. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. One even pitches car insurance in TV ads. They seemingly can adapt to a variety of conditions, but are most abundant in the tropics.

However, new research that builds on data collected more than three decades ago demonstrates that lizards living in tropical forests in Central and South America and the Caribbean could be in serious peril from rising temperatures associated with climate change.

In fact, those forest lizards appear to tolerate a much narrower range of survivable temperatures than do their relatives at higher latitudes and are actually less tolerant of high temperatures, said Raymond Huey, a University of Washington biology professor.

"The least heat-tolerant lizards in the world are found at the lowest latitudes, in the tropical forests. I find that amazing," said Huey, lead author of a paper outlining climate warming's threat to lizards published in the March 4 Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The Royal Society is Great Britain's national academy of science.

It has often been assumed that tropical organisms are much better at dealing with high temperatures than those in colder climates because the lowland tropics are always warm. But that assumption is only true to a point, Huey said, because those in the tropical forest experience a much narrower range of temperatures during the year and are rarely, if ever, exposed to extreme high temperatures.

A lizard in Washington, for example, might experience a temperature range of 40 degrees or more between summer and winter, while one in Puerto Rican forests might only experience a range of 20 to 25 degrees.

Forest conditions tend to keep lizards living there at temperatures that allow them to function at or close to their physical peak. A temperature change of just a few degrees can reduce their physical performance greatly.

Lizards are ectotherms, regulating their body temperature by exchanging heat with their surroundings. Huey originally collected data on body temperatures of lizards in a Puerto Rican forest in 1973, and later measured how fast they can sprint at various body temperatures. Sprinting relates directly to survivability because it affects a lizard's ability to hunt or elude predators.

He found that even at the coolest and warmest parts of the day the forest lizards functioned at least at 90 percent of their maximum ability, because the temperatures varied so little and were optimal then for these lizards. Subsequent laboratory work by Huey and others tested the sprinting speeds for more than 70 species of lizards at varying body temperatures.

"In the 1970s a bunch of us were running around the Caribbean with thermometers taking lizard body temperatures for reasons totally unrelated to climate warming. But we can use our data from a third a century ago as a baseline to now predict how lizards at different latitudes would respond to climate change," Huey said.

His co-authors are Curtis Deutsch of the University of California, Los Angeles; Joshua Tewksbury of the UW; Laurie Vitt of the University of Oklahoma; Paul Hertz of Barnard College; Héctor Álvarez Pérez of the University of Puerto Rico; and Theodore Garland Jr. of the University of California, Riverside. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the UW Program on Climate Change.

Huey's lizard studies in the early 1970s included a species called Anolis gundlachi that lived in a forest at about 1,000 feet elevation near El Verde, Puerto Rico. The shaded forest was an ideal environment for Anolis gundlachi, but was too cool for another species, A. cristatellus, that favored the warmer conditions found in unforested habitats nearby.

But since the early 1970s, Huey said, the average temperature in the forest has risen from just less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 83.5 F, which should be stressfully warm for A. gundlachi and almost warm enough for A. cristatellus. Scientists believe the tropics could warm by another 5 degrees F by the end of this century.

"That may not sound like much, but we think gundlachi is going to get hammered because it will suffer heat stress from the warmer temperatures," Huey said.

No time to comment. This is one of the more subtle potential changes that may happen though.

India Lays Down First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier

India laid the keel of its first aircraft carrier on Saturday 28th February, an event described by Defence Minister A.K. Antony as an “historic moment for India”, according to Indian press reports. “It is a crucial milestone and a moment to cherish in the country’s maritime history,” he said. The ship will be named INS Vikrant, which, in Sanskirt, means “courageous” and “victorious”, it was announced yesterday.

The Cochin Shipyard in Kerala began steel cutting for the ship in April 2005, after the government sanctioned the design in January 2003. Almost half of the 874 steel blocks have already been fabricated. It is the largest military vessel ever constructed by an Indian shipyard

The 260-metre long, 60-metre wide, 37,500 tonne ship will be propelled by two LM 2,500 gas turbines that will enable it to attain a speed of over 28 knots. It will be able to carry 30 combat aircraft, comprised of Russian MIG-29 K Fighters, indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, and Kamov-31 helicopters.

They've been talking about this for at least ten years. Let's see how many they decide they can afford during the economic mash-up. The question is whether or not the Indians will finish their own carrier prior to the Russians actually delivering on the one they were paid to rebuild for the Indians.

This ought to accelerate the Chinese working on their own carriers. If the Chinese do it, betcha the Japanese follow.

Karoo Fossil Free Dead Zone Not So Contiguous?

New scientific findings by geologist Robert Gastaldo of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and colleagues call into question popular theories about the largest mass extinction in Earth's history.

A paper reporting the results by Gastaldo, South African scientist Johann Neveling, and two 2008 Colby undergraduate students, C. Kittinger "Kit" Clark and Sophie Newbury, appears in the March 2009 issue of GEOLOGY.

Tens of millions of years before dinosaurs roamed Earth, their ancestors were all but eliminated in a catastrophic event called the Permian Mass Extinction. The Permian period extended from 299 to 252.6 million years ago.

"The Permian-Triassic boundary marks the greatest extinction event in Earth's history, with significant loss of biodiversity both on land and in the oceans," says H. Richard Lane, a paleontologist and program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research.

"Until this study, it was believed that the event was marked by unique rocks traceable across southern hemisphere continents. This research calls into question whether the extinction event is actually constrained in the geologic record on land."

Ideas about the event's impact on land animals and plants are based largely on records in the Karoo Basin in central South Africa, where the best fossil records from that time are found, and where Gastaldo and his students have worked since 2003 with funding from NSF.

Earlier analysis of the rock record by other scientists working in South Africa led them to hypothesize about the nature, scope and timing of the mass die-off of prehistoric amphibians and reptiles.

They claimed that one unique sedimentary layer in the Karoo Basin overlies fossils of the last reptiles of the Permian period (synapsids, including the genus Dicynodon).

This layer has been dubbed "the dead zone" because of its absence of fossil remains.

This dead zone was thought to be synchronous in time and space, marking the event across southern Africa and as far away as Antarctica.

Now Gastaldo and co-authors report that they have found conflicting stratigraphic evidence in the Karoo Basin.

They discovered that this dead zone layer, or event bed, is not found at the same physical position in the rock record at all places, even across the immediate landscape where it was first described.

As such, it is not a reliable marker of the mass extinction of terrestrial animals, Gastaldo says.

GIMME THE PAPER!!!!!!!!

ahem.

Someone? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Friday Militaria

The Big Dog again:



Then There's the HULC:



Which is based on the Berkeley work (BLEEX, etc), but paired with Lockheed. Looks like future wars are going to get ... interesting. The HULC can be up armored with 200 lbs. 200 lbs of armor...that's significant because you can do at least what we have on the soldiers' chests...EVERYWHERE and still have enough left over for more in the critical areas.

Ah, the SuperTrooper project is nearly here.

Antarctica's Ice Sheets Grew VERY Rapidly at the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary

Global climate rapidly shifted from a relatively ice-free world to one with massive ice sheets on Antarctica about 34 million years ago. What happened? What changed? A team of scientists led by Yale geologists offers a new perspective on the nature of changing climatic conditions across this greenhouse-to-icehouse transition—one that refutes earlier theories and has important implications for predicting future climate changes.

Detailed in the February 27 issue of Science, their data disproves a long-held idea that massive ice growth in the Antarctic was accompanied by little to no global temperature change.

This report shows that before the Southern Hemisphere ice expansion, high-latitude temperatures were at least 10°C (about 18˚F) warmer than previously estimated and that there was a 5˚C - 10˚C drop in surface-water temperature during the climate transition.

"Previous reconstructions gave no evidence of high-latitude cooling," according to senior author Mark Pagani, professor of geology and geophysics at Yale. "Our data demonstrate a clear temperature drop in both hemispheres during this time."

Their conclusions are based on sea-surface "temperature proxies" – calculations of temperature based on the distribution of specific organic molecules from ancient plankton that only lived at certain temperatures and were later preserved in ocean sediments. These molecules were assayed in ocean cores collected by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) and earlier marine programs that study Earth history by coring deep-ocean sediments and crust around the world.

"Temperatures in some regions, just before the Antarctic glaciers formed, were surprisingly higher than current climate models predicted, suggesting that these models underestimate high-latitude warming under high CO2 conditions," said lead author Zhonghui Liu, Pagani's postdoctoral associate who is now an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. Further, he said, the substantial cooling that occurred in both Northern and Southern high latitudes suggests that a decline in CO2 level, rather than a localized change of ocean circulation drove the climate transition.

The ice formed over Antarctica in about 100,000 years, which is an "overnight" shift in geological terms. "Just over thirty-five million years ago, 'poof,' there was an ice sheet where there had been subtropical temperatures before," said Co-author Matthew Huber of Purdue University.

Another theory refuted by this study is the notion that ice-expansion also occurred in the Northern Hemisphere during this time — a supposition poorly supported by physical evidence of glacier formation in that region, say the Yale scientists.

It's Matt Huber again!

Very, very quickly. The Eocene mass extinction was brought on by the mass cooling of the world. Not a meteor strike, not a volcano, not an anoxic event. The world went from hot house to not so hot house very quickly. The world was very tropical. And then it wasn't. The suspicion is that the PETM was caused by a massive methane calthrate release (not, no mass extinction associated) and the extinction that followed was from the methane going away...and the CO2 being reduced as well.

The Eocene was a very interesting and very different world.

TOOTHED Miocene Bird?

Paleontologists working in Peru have found a fossil from a bird that lived 10 million years ago, scientists said on Friday after returning from the dig site on the country's desert coast.

The species of bird had a wing span of 19.7 feet and fed mostly on fish from the Pacific Ocean. It first appeared 50 million years ago and was extinct about 2.5 million years ago because of climate change, paleontologist Mario Urbina of Peru's Natural History Museum said.

Scientists discovered a rare fossil of the bird's head in Ocucaje, in the Ica region of Peru's southern coast, where an arid climate has preserved many fossils.

"The cranium of the bird, from the Pelagornithidae family, is the most complete find of its kind in the world. Its fossil remains are hard to find," Urbina said.

Old ocean seabeds in the area have been a treasure trove for fossil hunters.

"This site had marine sediments. The fossil was found with other remains from whales, sharks and turtles," Urbina said.

At the time of the bird's death, Peru's coast was hot and rainy, but millions of years later, it turned cool and dry, he said.

The fossil is 15.7 inches long and will go on display on Saturday at the museum.

The bird had some peculiar characteristics, including teeth at the tip of its beak and large wings that were less efficient than those of contemporary birds.

Toothed bird? Someone have a link an image of the skull?

CPAC Begins Pondering 2012 Candidates

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
former House speaker Newt Gingrich
former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani
former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
Texas Rep. Ron Paul
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford
“Undecided.”
There’s also space on the ballot for a write-in-candidate.

hrm. A little early for this. McCain is absent, but Ron Paul isn't. Isn't that a kicker: RP is about the same age too.

Obama's NASA Budget One of Policy Continuity

The fiscal 2010 NASA budget outline to be released by the Obama Administration Feb. 26 adds almost $700 million to the out-year figure proposed in the fiscal 2009 budget request submitted by former President Bush, and sticks with the goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.

The $18.7 billion that Obama will request for NASA - up from $18.026 billion for fiscal 2010 in the last Bush budget request - does not include the $1 billion NASA will receive in the $787 billion stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed Feb. 16.

Aviation Week has learned that in addition to the human-lunar return, Obama wants to continue robotic exploration with probes to Mars and other Solar System destinations, as well as a space telescope to probe deeper into the universe.

I have to say I a little surprised, but pleased. One of NASA's great banes has been that every 8 years its priorities get reset. It's nice to know that Obama seems to want to continue with the Moon quest. Assuming Obama makes it through 2016, we'll be largely there. Assuming that a Repug or an antispace Demo doesn't come in then, we ought to be 'there.'

My 'wish' would be some enhancements for the unmanned program: money to cover the MSL overruns, money to speed up, a tad, the Jupiter-Europa Orbiter and ditto for the Titan Saturn System Mission as well as more money and direction for the Mars program. I would also want a rigorous and well thought out exploration of the minor bodies in the solar system as well. and...and...well.

:D


Now, let me say that we really need to be careful about international collaborations. They very frequently drive up costs and can have dubious benefits (ISS, frex).

Russians Go The Extra Mile to Deny the Holodomor

Russia issued a DVD and a thick book of historical documents on Wednesday to dispute claims that the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s amounted to genocide.

Russian archivists and historians pressed the Kremlin's case that the Stalin-era famine — which killed millions of people — was a common tragedy across Soviet farmlands, countering efforts by Ukraine's pro-Western president to convince the world that Ukrainians were targeted for starvation.

"Not a single document exists that even indirectly shows that the strategy and tactics chosen for Ukraine differed from those applied to other regions, not to mention tactics or strategy with the aim of genocide," said Vladimir Kozlov, head of Russia's Federal Archive Agency.

He said the famine was a direct result of Josef Stalin's brutal collectivization campaign and the widespread confiscation of grain that was exported to secure equipment needed for the Soviet dictator's frenetic industrialization drive.

Kozlov said the policy was class-based, targeting the kulaks — wealthy farmers seen as enemies of Communism — and was implemented virtually identically across the Soviet Union.

"There were no national or ethnic undertones," he told a news conference at the headquarters of state news agency RIA-Novosti.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko contends the famine was aimed at rooting out Ukrainian nationalism.

"Hunger was selected as a tool to subdue the Ukrainian people," he said at a November ceremony marking the anniversary of what Ukrainians consider the onset of the 1932-1933 famine.

Ukrainian lawmakers and a U.S. commission have labeled the famine an act of genocide, and Yushchenko has pushed for more governments and international bodies to follow suit. However, neither the United Nations nor the European Union has done so.

For some background, read a bit on the Holodomor here.

Paleo What-if

So what-if stegosaurs converged with sauropods more to produce a loooooong necked variety. Could we have seen vast stegosaur herds like we presume were the case with the sauropods? Or would they have been simply outcompeted as it seems was the case in OTL?

Beachball with Legs?

Evidence of Supernovas Found in Ice Cores

There hasn’t been a decent supernova in our part of the universe in living memory but astronomers in the 11th century were a little more fortunate. In 1006 AD, they witnessed what is still thought to be the brightest supernova ever seen on Earth (SN 1006) and just 48 years later saw the birth of the Crab Nebula (SN 1054).

Our knowledge of these events come from numerous written accounts, mainly by Chinese and Arabic astronomers (and of course from the observations we can make today of the resultant nebulae).

Now we can go one better. A team of Japanese scientists has found the first evidence of supernovae in an ice core.

The gamma rays from nearby supernova ought to have a significant impact on our atmosphere, in particular by producing an excess of nitrogen oxide. This ought to have left its mark in the Earth’s ice history, so the team went looking for it in Antarctica.

The researchers took an ice core measuring 122 metres from Dome Fuji station, an inland site in Antarctica. At a depth of about 50 metres, corresponding to the 11th century, they found three nitrogen oxide spikes, two of which were 48 years apart and easily identifiable as belonging to SN 1006 and SN 1054. The cause of the third spike is not yet known.

That’s impressive result and their ice core was obligingly revealing about other major events in the Earth’s past. The team saw a 10 year variation in the background levels of nitrogen oxide, almost certainly caused by the 11-year solar cycle (an effect that has been seen before in ice cores). They also saw a number of sulphate spikes from known volcanic eruptions such as Taupo, New Zealand, in 180 AD and El Chichon, Mexico, in 1260 AD.

The team speculate that the mysterious third spike may have been caused by another supernova, visible only from the southern hemisphere or hidden behind a cloud.

kewl.

India Aims for Manne Space Flight by 2015

India has approved a £1.7 billion plan to launch its first astronauts into space by 2015, in its latest bid to close the gap with China in what many see as a 21st Century Asian version of the Cold War race for the Moon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will attempt to put two people into orbit 172 miles (275 km) above the Earth for seven days, according to a proposal approved by the Planning Commission at a meeting on Friday.

"ISRO needs to be supported as it has done marvellous job in the field of Space Science. That's why Planning Commission will support it," Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, told reporters.

"An unmanned flight will be launched in 2013-2014 and manned mission likely to launch by 2014-2015," he said.

That's really kewl. I wish them luck. However, hopefully this will progress faster than their nuclear powered sub project.

Berkeley's Above the Clouds

UC Berkeley and LBNL/NERSC have set up a blog related to their position on cloud computing. Go take a look. White paper, youtube video, etc all present. It's sorta HPC related. Kinda the cross between distributed computing and clusters.

Take a look.

Fattysaurus? Another Attempt to Give T rex a Speeding Ticket?

Karl Bates and his colleagues in the palaeontology and biomechanics research group have reconstructed the bodies of five dinosaurs, two T. rex (Stan at the Manchester Museum and the Museum of the Rockies cast MOR555), an Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, a Strutiomimum sedens and an Edmontosaurus annectens.

The team, whose findings are published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE today (19th February 2009), found that the smaller Museum of the Rockies T. rex could have weighed anywhere between 5.5 and 7 tonnes, while the larger specimen (Stan) might have weighed as much as 8 tonnes.

Acrocanthosaurus atokensis was a large predatory dinosaur that looked like T. rex but with large spines on its back and roamed the earth much earlier in the mid Cretaceous period, around 110M years ago. The team suggest Acrocanthosaurus probably weighed in at a similar mass to MOR555 and other medium sized adult T. rex at about 6 tonnes.

The Strutiomimum sedens, whose name means "ostrich mimic", lived alongside T. rex in the late Cretaceous period and probably weighed somewhere between 0.4 – 0.6 tonnes

The reconstruction of Edmontosaurus annectens, a plant-eating hadrosaur was based on a juvenile specimen, but still weighed in at between 0.8 – 0.95 tonnes. As adults, some hadrosaurs grew as big as T. rex, again living in the late Cretaceous period.

The team used laser scanning (LiDAR) and computer modelling methods to create a range of 3D models of the specimens, attempting to reconstruct their body sizes and shape as in life. The laser scanner images the full mounted skeleton, resulting in a detailed 3D model in which each bone retains its spatial position and articulation. This provides a high resolution skeletal framework around which the body cavity and internal organs such as stomach, lungs and air sacs can be reconstructed. This has allowed calculation of body segment masses, centres of mass and moments of inertia for each animal – all the information that is needed to analyse body movements.

Having created their 'best-guess' reconstruction of each animal, they then varied the volumes of body segments and respiratory organs to find the maximum plausible range of mass for the animals. Even scientists cannot be sure exactly how fat or thin animals like T. rex were in life, and the team were interested in exactly how broad the range of possible values were for body mass. They believe that the lower weight estimates are most likely to be correct as there is no good reason for the dinosaurs to weigh more than they need to as this would affect their speed, energy use and demands on the respiratory system.

The team also measured the body mass of an ostrich, as an existing subject that would show how accurate their technique was, and found the results to be correct.

They will now use the results to further investigate the locomotion of dinosaurs, specifically how they ran.

New speed ticket?

Russians to Europa (me too!!!!)

The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences welcomed several delegations of foreign scientists last week to discuss the issues of exploring one of Jupiter’s moons. The specialists gathered to discuss the potential problems, which may appear during research missions to Europa.

Europa is one of the most attractive celestial bodies in the solar system. Scientists do not doubt about the existence of the ocean underneath its layers of ice. They actively discuss a possible existence of life forms in the water environment of the moon. The rovers that may head to Europa in the future will try to find an answer to this question.

“It is too early to say that a mission to Europa is ready. We will have to study every detail of the project at first and look into all potential difficulties that may arise from this initiative. The process will take a couple of years, and we will then decide if the Russian mission to Europa becomes a reality or not,” a leading scientist of the above-mentioned institute, A.V. Zakharov told Pravda.ru

If Russia eventually decides to launch a spacecraft to Europa, it will take seven or eight years to complete all technical preparations to the project. Thus, the rover will most likely be launched not earlier than 2020.

NASA also announced its readiness to launch a group of rovers to Europa. The US space agency is expected to make an official announcement on the matter this week.

soooo....we're doing rovers too. uh huh.

Even at their height, I don't believe the Soviets sent anything to Jupiter. Or did they?

They really, really want to make it appear that they are in a race with us. Mars, Jupiter...huh.

Water Warming Feedback Cycle Confirmed?

Andrew Dessler, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences who specializes in research on climate, says that warming due to increases in greenhouse gases will lead to higher humidity in the atmosphere. And because water vapor itself is a greenhouse gas, this will cause additional warming. This process is known as water vapor feedback and is responsible for a significant portion of the warming predicted to occur over the next century.

"It's a vicious cycle – warmer temperatures mean higher humidity, which in turn leads to even more warming," Dessler explains.

The perspective by Dessler and co-author Steven Sherwood of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales is published in the current issue of "Science" magazine. In the article, they review and summarize the peer-reviewed evidence in support of a strong water vapor feedback and conclude that the evidence supporting it is overwhelming.

"For years, there was a debate over this mechanism, with some even questioning if the water vapor feedback existed at all. But recent work on this feedback has moved its existence and strength beyond argument," Dessler adds.

Predictions of significant global warming over the next 100 years by climate models require a strong water vapor feedback. Recent estimates suggest the earth will warm from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius (4 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next century – a scenario that could have devastating long-term consequences.

"Everything shows that the climate models are probably getting the water vapor feedback right, which means that unless we reduce emissions, it is going to get much, much warmer on our planet by the end of the century," he adds.

To some extent we 'knew' this already: it's part of the postulated meltdown of Venus. OTOH, we'd not seen it in the wild, on Earth. That said, it seems we do. That said, it means anthropogenic climate change is going to be worse (now as to degree...) That said, we won't be going into a Venus situation. The Permian Extinction was the closest to that and it was still quite a ways off.

The Origin of the Nitrogen Cycle Found?

As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, there is much focus on evolution in animals and plants. But new research shows that for the countless billions of tiniest creatures – microbes – large-scale evolution was completed 2.5 billion years ago.

"For microbes, it appears that almost all of their major evolution took place before we have any record of them, way back in the dark mists of prehistory," said Roger Buick, a University of Washington paleontologist and astrobiologist.

All living organisms need nitrogen, a basic component of amino acids and proteins. But for atmospheric nitrogen to be usable, it must be "fixed," or converted to a biologically useful form. Some microbes turn atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, a form in which the nitrogen can be easily absorbed by other organisms.

But the new research shows that about 2.5 billion years ago some microbes evolved that could carry the process a step further, adding oxygen to the ammonia to produce nitrate, which also can be used by organisms. That was the beginning of what today is known as the aerobic nitrogen cycle.

The microbes that accomplished that feat are on the last, or terminal, branches of the bacteria and archaea domains of the so-called tree of life, and they are the only microbes capable of carrying out the step of adding oxygen to ammonia.

The fact that they are on those terminal branches indicates that large-scale evolution of bacteria and archaea was complete about 2.5 billion years ago, Buick said.

"Countless bacteria and archaea species have evolved since then, but the major branches have held," said Buick, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences.

He is the corresponding author of the research, which appears in the Feb. 20 edition of Science. Lead author is Jessica Garvin, a UW Earth and space sciences graduate student. Other authors are Ariel Anbar and Gail Arnold of Arizona State University and Alan Jay Kaufman of the University of Maryland. The work was funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation.

The scientists examined material from a half-mile-deep core drilled in the Pilbara region of northwest Australia. They looked specifically at a section of shale from 300 to 650 feet deep, deposited 2.5 billion years ago, and found telltale isotope signatures created in the process of denitrification, the removal of oxygen from nitrate.

If denitrification was occurring, then nitrification – the addition of oxygen to ammonia to form nitrate – also must have been taking place, Buick said. That makes the find the earliest solid evidence for the beginning of the aerobic nitrogen cycle.

"What this shale deposit has done is record the onset of the modern nitrogen cycle," he said. "This was a life-giving nutrient then and remains so today. That's why you put nitrogen fertilizer on your tomato plants, for example."

The discovery gives clues about when and how the Earth's atmosphere became oxygen rich, Buick believes.

No time to comment.

The oxygen related event mentioned is the Great Oxidation Event.

Kewl Space Pic

Tinkered Virus 'Cured' Cystic Fibrosis in Lab

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Iowa have turned a relatively benign virus into a highly infectious form that is ideal as a carrier for gene therapy.

In its first gene therapy test, it completely cured human cystic fibrosis lung tissue in culture.

This success with the benign adeno-associated virus (AAV), published this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, overcomes a major problem of earlier virus-based gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, and sets the stage for tests in advanced animal models of the disease.

"I think it is worthwhile thinking about clinical therapy at the levels of infection we are achieving," said coauthor David Schaffer, professor of chemical engineering at UC Berkeley.

A new pig model of cystic fibrosis developed last year by Schaffer's colleague, pulmonologist Joseph Zabner of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, will provide a key test of the virus as a carrier of a gene to replace the mutated gene responsible for the disease.

"If we are able to show that efficient gene transfer can result in gene therapy, if we can cure the lung disease of pigs that have been genetically engineered to have cystic fibrosis lung disease, we should have a real chance of curing cystic fibrosis in humans," Zabner said in an e-mail.

Schaffer's lab is collaborating with groups elsewhere to adapt the virus to gene therapy for other diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).

"Both of those are situations where improvements in the properties of the vehicle can have a significant impact on the success of the therapy,"
Schaffer said.

I've always felt that gene therapy was being undersold while stem cells have been waaaaaaaaaaaay oversold. There is SOOOO much potential for, well, cures from lots of nasty diseases that are genetic in nature that stem cells are only patching...at best.

Besides, stem cells can and do cause cancer too. GT also has less squicky bits morally, too, fora lot of people. Oh wait, we're still messing with God's work. Doh.

That's just me. More money for gene therapy!

Tropical Carbon Land Sink

Globally, tropical trees in undisturbed forest are absorbing nearly a fifth of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels.

The researchers show that remaining tropical forests remove a massive 4.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year. This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, mopping up 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.

Published today in Nature, the 40 year study of African tropical forests–one third of the world's total tropical forest–shows that for at least the last few decades each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon per year.

The scientists then analysed the new African data together with South American and Asian findings to assess the total sink in tropical forests. Analysis of these 250,000 tree records reveals that, on average, remaining undisturbed forests are trapping carbon, showing that they are a globally significant carbon sink.

"We are receiving a free subsidy from nature," says Dr Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Leeds, and the lead author of the paper. "Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change."

The reason why the trees are getting bigger and mopping up carbon is unclear. A leading suspect is the extra CO2 in the atmosphere itself, which may be acting like a fertiliser. However, Dr Lewis warns, "Whatever the cause, we cannot rely on this sink forever. Even if we preserve all remaining tropical forest, these trees will not continue getting bigger indefinitely."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that globally human activity emits 32 billion tonnes of CO2 each year, but only 15 billion tonnes actually stays in the atmosphere adding to climate change. The new research shows exactly where some of the 'missing' 17 billion tonnes per year is going.

"It's well known that about half of the 'missing' carbon is being dissolved in to the oceans, and that the other half is going somewhere on land in vegetation and soils, but we were not sure precisely where. According to our study about half the total carbon 'land sink' is in tropical forest trees," explains Dr Lewis.

Interesting. However, remember that tree and terrestrial plant carbon absorption are curtailed by nutrient availability. Growing faster depletes that as well. ;)

The Russian Take on Global Warming

Russia will likely see more forest fires, droughts and floods in the coming century due to global warming, and policy makers need to prepare for large-scale change, scientists warned in a report released Wednesday.

It also said Russia, famous for its brutal winters, will benefit from climate change in some ways, with warmer temperatures and less snow and ice.

Growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice, opening up new shipping lanes, already is generating competition between Russia and other nations over the Arctic's natural resources.

But the study published Wednesday by the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring is Russia's first comprehensive effort at documenting climate change in the world's largest country — and one of the coldest.

"Naturally, (Russia) has a lot of climatic distinctions and we wanted to know how climate change and global warming affects different parts of Russia, to know what exactly is going on," said Alexander Bedritsky, who heads the meteorology service.

Over the past 100 years, air temperatures in Russia warmed by around 2.33 degrees F (1.29 degrees C), compared with1.3 F (0.74 degrees C) globally, the report said.

In the second half of the 20th century, winter snow cover decreased in Siberia and the Far Eastern region of Chukotka. The volume of water flowing through major Siberian rivers increased, the report found.

Soil temperatures in parts of western Siberia long known for permafrost have climbed by 1.8 F (1 C) in the final 25 years of the last century. And Arctic ice cover has decreased steadily in the past two decades.

Some governments have said that Russia, and possibly Canada, stand to gain the most from global warming, as permafrost melts, forests migrate northward and more land becomes arable.

Sergei Semyonov, of the Institute for Studies of Global Warming and the Environment, said warmer temperatures have definitely benefited Russian agriculture. But he also warned of new species of crop-destroying pests such as locusts moving northward.

Bedritsky said warmer temperatures also will mean a shorter season for Russia's notoriously inefficient municipal heating systems — saving energy and money.

But the report said policy makers should begin planning for changes from warming temperatures, such as the likelihood that increased flooding in the Caspian Sea basin will swamp towns and villages, or that farmers will need substantially more irrigation in increasingly arid regions.

I believe that Global Warming is a Russo-Canadian conspiracy!

See!



(JUST KIDDING)

Assisted Colonization: A VERY Sharp, Double Edged Tool?

A team of researchers, led by biologists at Durham and York Universities, has shown that translocation to climatically-suitable areas can work and that butterflies can survive beyond their northern ranges if they're given a 'helping hand' to get to suitable new habitats.

The research, funded by NERC, aimed to examine the implications of climate change for the conservation and management of biodiversity by looking at the distribution of butterflies.

The research team ran a series of climate-change models to identify areas in northern England where, as a result of the climate warming of recent decades, butterflies found further south might thrive but which they had not yet reached. Researchers then transported Marbled White and Small Skipper butterflies to two of these climatically-suitable sites that were well beyond the butterflies' northern range boundaries.

Between 1999 and 2000, free flying individuals were collected from sites in North Yorkshire and translocated, using soft cages, to release sites in disused quarries in County Durham and Northumberland. These sites had ample suitable breeding habitat for the butterflies, and were chosen after careful discussion with local experts. After release, the introduced populations were monitored over the following 8 years.

The research, published in Conservation Letters, involved Durham University, the University of York, the University of Leeds, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and Butterfly Conservation. The team's modelling shows that there is a lag between climate change and distribution change, and the practical results prove that butterflies can flourish in habitats that they might not normally be able to reach.

This is a topic that has caused some ecologists to be very, very concerned. The idea of transplanting an organism from one locale to another may cause a very nasty, if inadvertent invasive species problem: taken out of ecological context the organism may run wild causing harm to other organisms in its new habitat. It will be interesting to see if this technique is actually used much.

That said, it should be noted that even without help that the ecologies are changing: trees are 'marching' north and have been, off and on (mostly on) since the end of the last glacial cycle. 10k years ago (+/-) Canada was originally a wasteland. The ecologies there are very, very YOUNG.

The world is not a static entity, even without people.

TO JUPITER!

At a meeting in Washington last week, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency officials decided to continue pursuing studies of a mission to Jupiter and its four largest moons, and to plan for another potential mission to visit Saturn's largest moon Titan and Enceladus.

Both of these proposed missions are grand endeavors that set the stage for future planetary science research. These outer planet flagship missions could eventually answer questions about how our solar system formed and whether life exists elsewhere in the universe.

The missions, called the Europa Jupiter System Mission and the Titan Saturn System Mission, are the result of NASA and ESA merging their separate mission concepts. NASA originally studied four mission concepts during 2007, which were narrowed down to two proposals in 2008. One finalist was a Europa Orbiter to explore that icy moon of Jupiter and its subsurface water ocean. The other was a Titan Orbiter to visit the Saturn moon. Independently, in 2007, ESA also initiated a competition to select its flagship mission for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 slot of the ESA scientific programme. Two finalists, called Laplace and Tandem, were selected by ESA for further study. Laplace was a set of spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and eventually orbit and land on Europa. Tandem was a set of spacecraft intended to orbit Titan and explore its surface, after also exploring the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

NASA and ESA engineers and scientists carefully studied both potential missions in preparation for last week's meeting. Based on these and other studies as well as stringent independent assessment reviews, NASA and ESA agreed that the Europa Jupiter System Mission, called Laplace in Europe, was the most technically feasible to do first. However, ESA's Solar System Working Group concluded the scientific merits of this mission and a Titan Saturn System Mission could not be separated. The group recommended, and NASA agreed, that At a meeting in Washington last week, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency officials decided to continue pursuing studies of a mission to Jupiter and its four largest moons, and to plan for another potential mission to visit Saturn's largest moon Titan and Enceladus.

Both of these proposed missions are grand endeavors that set the stage for future planetary science research. These outer planet flagship missions could eventually answer questions about how our solar system formed and whether life exists elsewhere in the universe.

The missions, called the Europa Jupiter System Mission and the Titan Saturn System Mission, are the result of NASA and ESA merging their separate mission concepts. NASA originally studied four mission concepts during 2007, which were narrowed down to two proposals in 2008. One finalist was a Europa Orbiter to explore that icy moon of Jupiter and its subsurface water ocean. The other was a Titan Orbiter to visit the Saturn moon. Independently, in 2007, ESA also initiated a competition to select its flagship mission for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 slot of the ESA scientific programme. Two finalists, called Laplace and Tandem, were selected by ESA for further study. Laplace was a set of spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and eventually orbit and land on Europa. Tandem was a set of spacecraft intended to orbit Titan and explore its surface, after also exploring the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

NASA and ESA engineers and scientists carefully studied both potential missions in preparation for last week's meeting. Based on these and other studies as well as stringent independent assessment reviews, NASA and ESA agreed that the Europa Jupiter System Mission, called Laplace in Europe, was the most technically feasible to do first. However, ESA's Solar System Working Group concluded the scientific merits of this mission and a Titan Saturn System Mission could not be separated. The group recommended, and NASA agreed, that both missions should move forward for further study and implementation.

Sweet! The really kewl thing is that NASA & ESA agreed that "both missions should move forward for further study and implementation." The Jupiter Duo would just be in first place. The Saturn-Titan Mission would be funded after the technical challenges are taken care of. If they get the funding.

Hat tip to Future Planetary Exploration.

There are rumors the Russians might try a Jupiter mission. I'll see if I can find a link.

Russians Move to Control "Their" Polar Claims

The Russian Duma is preparing legislation that will define the northern sea route as a Russian domain in which Russian inspectors will have the power to board and expel ships that do not meet Russian standards, a measure that constitutes the latest step in Moscow’s campaign to assert its control over parts of the Arctic Ocean far beyond its coastline.

At the end of last week, Artur Chilingarov, who advises President Dmitry Medvedev on polar issues, told the media that the new law will “help regulate shipping along a route” that is expected to become busier as global warming causes it to be ice free for longer than the two months each year at the present time.

Or are the Russian Polar aspirations just the Titanic headed out to sea?

Green House Gases Building Up Faster Than IPCC Models Predict

It seems the dire warnings about future devastation sparked by global warming have not been dire enough, top climate scientists warned Saturday.

It has been just over a year since the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a landmark report warning of rising sea levels, expanding deserts, more intense storms and the extinction of up to 30 percent of plant and animal species.

But recent climate studies suggest that report significantly underestimates the potential severity of global warming over the next 100 years, a senior member of the panel warned.

"We are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously in climate policy," said Chris Field, who was a coordinating lead author of the report.

"Without effective action, climate change is going to be larger and more difficult to deal with than we thought."

Fresh data has shown that greenhouse gas emissions have grown by an average of 3.5 percent a year from 2000 to 2007, Field told reporters at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

That's "far more rapid than we expected" and more than three times the 0.9 growth rate in the 1990's, he said.

While increased economic activity could have contributed to the growth in emissions, Field said it appears as though the bulk of the growth is "because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal."

Welcome to Part N+ILostTrack of why Global Warming is Inevitable.

I need to get that Neo-Oligocene vs Neo Eocene post done. gah.

New Argentine Omnivorous Dino Found

Scientists have found fossil remains of an omnivorous dinosaur in Argentina -- a missing link to the carnivores, a researcher said Monday.

"It is an omnivore -- in other words it ate everything (plants and meat) -- which is the missing link between carnivorous dinosaurs and giant four-footed herbivores," said Oscar Alcober, also director of the Natural Sciences Museum in San Juan, 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) west of Buenos Aires.

"This is a very important piece of the puzzle on the origin of dinosaurs," said Alcober.

Alcober and Ricardo Martinez, chief of the museum's paleontology division, found the remains three years ago in the Ischigualasto-Valle de la Luna park, north of the provincial capital San Juan. They released their findings Monday in the online journal of peer reviewed science PlosOne.org.

Very scant details there and the paper isn't on PLoSOne yet.

BrightSource Energy Wins 1.3 GigaWatt Solar Contracts

Solar power's explosive growth in California may have been stunted by the credit crisis and the recession, but the boom isn't over yet.

In what could be the world's largest solar deal to date, BrightSource Energy of Oakland announced Wednesday that it will sell Southern California Edison 1,300 megawatts of electricity from seven large solar plants planned for the California desert.

That's enough juice to light 845,000 homes, and it easily eclipses other recent deals signed by utilities here and abroad that are trying to expand their use of renewable power.

"It's a significant statement by Southern California Edison in their commitment to renewable energy and BrightSource's technology," said John Woolard, BrightSource's chief executive officer. "America and California have long called for clean renewable energy, and we look forward to working with Southern California Edison to meet this need."

That's enough for around 7% of the households, iirc. A nice bit of sunshine on this cloudy economic day. I'm still a little fascinated by Nanosolar though.

Rough Draft of Neandertal Genome

Gene sleuths who have come up with a rough draft of the Neanderthal DNA code said on Thursday the ancient relatives of modern humans shared with us one gene for speech, but little else.

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and 454 Life Science Corp, a Roche company, said they have sequenced more than 60 percent of the entire Neanderthal genome.

Preliminary results confirm what the group had already suspected: that Neanderthals, humanity's closest relative, contributed very little to the gene pool of modern humans.

"Our data really shows if there was a contribution, it was very small. It's tiny," Svante Paabo, who is heading up the effort at the Max Planck Institute, told reporters in a video conference.

Neanderthals lived in Europe and parts of Asia until about 30,000 years ago, when Cro-Magnon people, the ancestors of modern humans, moved in.

The group is working to get a complete Neanderthal gene map, which they plan to compare to the previously sequenced human and chimpanzee genomes in the hopes of gaining more insights about how Neanderthals differed from humans.

Paabo said the analysis so far confirms that humans and Neanderthals had the same variant of the FOXP2 gene known to play a role in speech.

"We cannot say from this they could speak. We can just say there is no reason to assume they couldn't speak from what little we know," he said.

The team wants to look at other genes, including those involved in brain ageing and development, he said.

So far, the two groups have sequenced a total of more than 1 billion fragments of Neanderthal DNA, generating a first draft sequence of the entire Neanderthal genome.

I was waiting at least for the Eureka Alert, but...this will have to do.

Whither Introgression? It seems very unlikely that the the FOX2P would be the ONLY gene to have introgressed. We'll wait and see what John has to say. If true, the Neandertals were definitely a separate species. Cousins at most.

Sec Chu Floats Carbon Tax

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has floated the idea of a carbon emissions tax to fight global warming, in an interview with The New York Times Thursday.

During the US presidential campaign, the notion was kept largely on the back burner as candidates were reluctant to promote the idea of costlier energy at a time when gasoline prices were soaring.

But since President Barack Obama's administration took office in January, Congress has been working on setting up a system for swapping greenhouse gas emissions quotas similar to the one used in the European Union.

And Chu said "alternatives could emerge, including a tax on carbon emissions," the Times reported.

That's my guy!

Now, Dr Chu, about our sister labs...don't do it!

The Bifurcation Structure And Noise Induced Transitions in the Pleistocene Glacial Cycles

The Bifurcation Structure And Noise Induced Transitions in the Pleistocene Glacial Cycles

Peter D. Ditlevsen

The glacial cycles are attributed to the climatic response of the orbital changes in the irradiance to the Earth. These changes in the forcing are to small to explain the observed climate variations as simple linear responses. Non-linear amplifications are necessary to account for the glacial cycles. Here an empirical model of the non-linear response is presented. From the model it is possible to assess the role of stochastic noise in comparison to the deterministic orbital forcing of the ice ages. The model is based on the bifurcation structure derived from the climate history. It indicates the dynamical origin of the Mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) from the '41 kyr world' to the '100 kyr world'. The dominant forcing in the latter is still the 41 kyr obliquity cycle, but the bifurcation structure of the climate system is changed. The model indicates that transitions between glacial and interglacial climate are assisted by internal stochastic noise in the period prior to the last five glacial cycles, while the last five cycles are deterministic responses to the orbital forcing.

This one I need to think through. As if I had time!!! *sighs* If anyone else has the spare brain cycles dump some thoughts here.

Russia: Which Way Is Up in Ukraine?

Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia’s ambassador in Kyiv, says that Moscow has little or no chance to bring Ukraine back into its sphere of influence anytime soon, not only because of Ukrainian attitudes toward Russia but also because of the scope of American activities in Ukraine.
In remarkably undiplomatic language, Chernomyrdin, who earlier served as Russia’s prime minister, not only acknowledged d that his own government is losing influence in the country to which he is accredited but also denounced both the US for its activities in Ukraine and Ukraine’s support of Georgia against Russia.

The Russian representative told ”Komsomolskaya Pravda” that like the US under George W. Bush, the Obama Administration will not give up its dominant position in Kyiv and will continue to work not only to ensure that Ukraine adopts an anti-Russian position on gas transit but also becomes a member of the Western alliance.

Asked directly whether Moscow had any chance to change this situation and bring Ukraine back into Moscow’s sphere of influence, Chernomyrdin answered baldly: “No, we will not be able to do that,” because the US won’t allow it and because Ukrainians, especially those in the current government, have such a negative attitude toward Russia.

The Americans, he continued, are “everywhere,” using “more than 2,000 foundations” to promote their interests, inviting people to study in the United States for free, and even sitting in the ministry of defense and “openly working” on behalf of American interests and the inclusion of Ukraine in NATO.

Tragically, Chernomyrdin said, Russians have not “learned” how to respond to this American challenge and consequently are losing their influence. And that problem is compounded by the experiences many Ukrainians working in the Russian Federation have had with Russian officialdom, experiences that have alienated them further.

As a result of all this, the Russian ambassador said, one can hardly reach an accord “with this Ukrainian leadership,” although it is possible that after the presidential elections in January 2010 a new group will come in and then it will be possible to do so, especially if the new people are “sober” and “normal” in their relations with Russia.

Asked whether Viktor Yanukovich, who has the reputation of being pro-Russian was the person Moscow would like to deal with as president of Ukraine, Chernomyrdin said that “it is difficult to say. It is possible to speak with him. But one should not trust anyone,” hardly an expression of support for someone committed to expanding Kyiv-Moscow ties.

Chernomyrdin’s undiplomatic remarks are intriguing both because many Russians believe they have numerous ways of forcing Ukraine to return to Moscow’s fold and are even celebrating what they see as a growth of Russian influence there.

Such commentators point to the declaration of a “Donets Republic” in eastern Ukraine this week and among the Rusin community in western Ukraine, but they say Moscow can employ “a South Ossetian” strategy in Crimea."

Why then given all these self-confident expressions in Moscow did Chernomyrdin choose to give this interview at all?

There are several possbilities. Comments later save two: the inability to trust anyone is a serious handicap for the xUSSR culture. Truly and seriously. And it's interesting that all the NGOs are attributed to the US. A lot are just plain European...or not really affiliated with any government.

Google Translations links to come shortly. Promise.

NM Seeks to Limit Liability From Spaceport America Flights

The New Mexico Legislature is hoping to limit lawsuits stemming from southern New Mexico's Spaceport America. Senate Bill 37, the "Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act" sponsored by Sen. Clinton Harden, R-Clovis, wants space flight participants to acknowledge that "commercial human space flight activities involve inherent risks that cannot be eliminated or controlled through the exercise of reasonable care, and that justify the exculpation of ordinary negligence, and that these inherent risks provide the challenge and excitement that entice space flight participants."

According to bill text, the purpose of the bill would be "to permit the use of waivers and releases of liability for space flight entities that will exculpate them from the inherent risks of space flight activities and their negligence." Thus, if passed, the space flight entity would therefore not be liable for a participant's injury because the participant has given informed consent to the risks, such as bodily injury, death, emotional injury, or property damage.

Bill is here. I really need to read it.

Hrm.

Either there is something wrong with this picture or there's a LOT of data munching happening on the Hummingbird.

A Different Amazon Rain Forest in the Future?

Amazonian forests may be less vulnerable to dying off from global warming than feared because many projections underestimate rainfall, a study showed.

The report, by scientists in Britain, said Brazil and other nations in the region would also have to act to help avert any irreversible drying of the eastern Amazon, the region most at risk from climate change, deforestation and fires.

"The rainfall regime in eastern Amazonia is likely to shift over the 21st century in a direction that favors more seasonal forests rather than savannah," they wrote in this week's U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, released on Monday.

Seasonal forests have wet and dry seasons rather than the current rainforest, which is permanently drenched. That shift could favor new species of trees, other plants and animals.

The findings contrast with past projections that the Amazon forest could die and be replaced by savannah.

A 2007 report by the U.N. Climate Panel, which is a snapshot of global warming science by the world's leading experts, said: "By mid-century, increases in temperature and associated decreases in soil water are projected to lead to gradual replacement of tropical forest by savannah in eastern Amazonia."

The new study said that almost all of 19 global climate models underestimated rainfall in the world's biggest tropical forest after the scientists compared the models with observations of 20th century climate.

Lowland forests in the Amazon have annual average rainfall of 2,400 mm (94 inches), it said. Projected cuts in rainfall meant the region would still be wet enough to sustain a forest.

The experts also examined field studies of how the Amazon might react to drying. It said that seasonal forests would be more resilient to the occasional drought but more vulnerable to fires than the current rainforest.

It also depends on whether we're going to do a Neo-Oligocene or Neo-Eocene. I need to get that post done. Ditto and especially the one about the methane calthrate hypothesis. oy.

A Call For Climate Engineering

By controlling emissions of fossil fuels we may be able to greatly delay the start of the next ice age, new research from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen concludes. The results have been published in the scientific magazine, Geophysical Research Letters.

From an Earth history perspective, we are living in cold times. The greatest climate challenge mankind has faced has been surviving ice ages that have dominated climate during the past million years. Therefore it is not surprising that back in the relatively cold 1970's prominent scientists like Soviet Union climatologist Mikhail Budyko greeted man-made global warming from CO2 emissions as a way to keep us out of future ice ages. And there are still those around who feel that continued high fossil fuel emissions are good for this reason. But is the extreme global warming that would result from this a reasonable, and indeed necessary, price to pay to keep ice ages at bay?

In a paper published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters 'Long time management of fossil fuels to limit global warming and avoid ice age onsets', Professor Gary Shaffer of the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, and also leader of the research team at the Danish Center for Earth System Science (DCESS), outlines a way to keep the Earth out of both Hot- and Icehouses for a half a million years into the future.

Paper is here.