Science and Exploration

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Lasiurus_cinereus

"Use of population-genetic data to predict economic success sparks war of words.

The invalid assumption that correlation implies cause is probably among the two or three most serious and common errors of human reasoning.” Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould was referring to purported links between genetics and an individual’s intelligence when he made this familiar complaint in his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man.

Fast-forward three decades, and leading geneticists and anthropologists are levelling a similar charge at economics researchers who claim that a country’s genetic diversity can predict the success of its economy. To critics, the economists’ paper seems to suggest that a country’s poverty could be the result of its citizens’ genetic make-up, and the paper is attracting charges of genetic determinism, and even racism."

for the complete article:
http://http://www.nature.com/news/ec...-union-1.11565

Thinks I would be a critic.

[Lasiurus_cinereus]

"After heart-treatment claims collapse, researchers caution against a rush to the clinic.

Rarely has such a spectacular scientific claim been debunked so rapidly. For a few brief hours last week, Hisashi Moriguchi, a project researcher at the University of Tokyo, was riding high, lauded by his nation’s press for pioneering work on induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. His feat was said to be the first successful use in humans of a technology that days earlier had won his countryman, Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1.

Yet a swift investigation by Nature and several stem-cell researchers found that Moriguchi’s claim to have cured six heart-failure patients with cells derived from iPS cells was untrue; that he had lied about his university affiliations; and that he had plagiarized key parts of his research papers2. At a hastily convened press conference on 13 October, Moriguchi recanted. “I admit that I lied,” he told reporters, adding that his “career as a researcher is probably over”."

for complete article: http://www.nature.com/news/stem-cell...-field-1.11598

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Lasiurus_cinereus

"After heart-treatment claims collapse, researchers caution against a rush to the clinic.

Rarely has such a spectacular scientific claim been debunked so rapidly. For a few brief hours last week, Hisashi Moriguchi, a project researcher at the University of Tokyo, was riding high, lauded by his nation’s press for pioneering work on induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. His feat was said to be the first successful use in humans of a technology that days earlier had won his countryman, Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1.

Yet a swift investigation by Nature and several stem-cell researchers found that Moriguchi’s claim to have cured six heart-failure patients with cells derived from iPS cells was untrue; that he had lied about his university affiliations; and that he had plagiarized key parts of his research papers2. At a hastily convened press conference on 13 October, Moriguchi recanted. “I admit that I lied,” he told reporters, adding that his “career as a researcher is probably over”."

for complete article: http://www.nature.com/news/stem-cell...-field-1.11598

Wonders if he's cashed the check yet and if his Nobel will be yanked. I hate liars.

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-predat...134808720.html

It's official, Predator X gets a name.

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/archaeologists...141927332.html

New dig planned at Troy.

[Scuba]

Orionid meteor showers (northern Hemisphere) tonight through Sunday morning. They say one can see up to 25 an hour I'll be bundling up tonight and heading out to my back yard for the show!

[Scuba]

Originally Posted by Scuba

Orionid meteor showers (northern Hemisphere) tonight through Sunday morning. They say one can see up to 25 an hour I'll be bundling up tonight and heading out to my back yard for the show!

Well crap...it's going to be cloudy here tonight

[Hollylane]

Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalisations were remarkably close to human speech.



On the page at BBC News (use above link), below the Beluga photo, is a recording of the sounds...Love this!

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/hawaii-volcano...221623347.html

Hawaii volcano lava lake threatens to overflow.


Very cool about the Beluga I could have sworn I heard "I love you" in there.

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/amazing-photo-...115527272.html


84 million stars, one spectacular photo!

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/salton-sea-vol...182258381.html



Salton Sea volcanos moved into Active list.

[Hollylane]

Elephant mimics Korean with help of his trunk

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/tomb-ancient-e...162840581.html


Unusual burial site for ancient Egyptian Princess.

[Lasiurus_cinereus]

"You could call this "Pac-Man, the Sequel." Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted a second feature shaped like the 1980s video game icon in the Saturn system, this time on the moon Tethys. (The first was found on Mimas in 2010). The pattern appears in thermal data obtained by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer, with warmer areas making up the Pac-Man shape."

source (and for images):
http://http://www.nasa.gov/mission_p.../pia16198.html

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/atom-smasher-c...201132904.html

Hedron creates new kind of matter.

[Greyson]

Bloom TownThe Wild Life of American Cities

By MAGGIE KOERTH-BAKER
Published: November 27, 2012

"As damaging as urbanization can be to its immediate environs, city living, on the whole, is greener than living in the suburbs."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/ma...ties.html?_r=0

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/drought-may-ki...165436243.html

Draught may have killed off Sumerian language.

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/never-seen-sta...180754694.html

Birth of a planet.

[Hollylane]

A dark lump of rock found in the Moroccan desert in 2011 is a new type of Martian meteorite, say scientists.

Weighing 320g, the stone has been given the formal name Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 - but is nicknamed "Black Beauty".

Its texture and chemistry set it apart from all previous objects picked up off the surface of Earth but known to originate on the Red Planet.

The researchers' analysis, reported in Science magazine, shows the meteorite to be just over two billion years old.

The study was led by Carl Agee from the University of New Mexico, US.

"It has some resemblance to the other Martian meteorites but it's also distinctly different in other respects," he told BBC News, "both in the way it just looks in hand sample, but also in its elemental composition."

There are just over 100 Martian meteorites currently in collections worldwide. They were all blasted off the Red Planet by some asteroid or cometary impact, and then spent millions of years travelling through space before falling to Earth.

Their discovery was mostly chance (few were seen in the act of falling) but their dark forms mean they will have caught the eye of meteorite hunters who scour desert sands and polar ice fields for rare rocks that can trade for tens of thousands of dollars.

Virtually all the Martian meteorites can be put in one of three classifications referred to as Shergotty, Nakhla, and Chassigny after key specimens. Scientists will often refer to these rocks simply as the SNC meteorites.

Prof Agee and colleagues argue that NWA 7034 now be put in its own class.

This rock is a basaltic breccia in character. It is made of a jumble of fragments that have been cemented back together in the high temperatures of a volcanic eruption. There are many examples of Moon meteorites that look this way, but no SNC ones.

Geochemically, NWA 7034 is dominated by alkali elements such as potassium and sodium. This is precisely what the robot rovers studying basalts down on the ground on Mars also see. This is not a trait seen in the SNC meteorites, interestingly.

Prof Agee's team also see much more water in the new meteorite - about 6,000 parts per million. That is about 10 times more water bound into the rock than is the case in the most water-rich SNC specimens.

This says something about the environment in which the rock formed, indicating there was a much greater abundance of water to interact with the basalt.

"This rock is from two billion years ago and a lot of the SNCs are from only about 200-400 million years ago," explained Prof Agee.

"And of course those most recent times on Mars have witnessed a cold, dry planet with a thin atmosphere. A lot of people believe that early Mars, on the other hand, was a lot warmer and a lot wetter, and maybe even a harbour for life.

"So, what happened in between? When did this transformation to drier conditions occur? Well, NWA 7034, because of its greater age, may be able to address those questions."

[Lasiurus_cinereus]

"Flesh-eating flies map forest biodiversity


DNA in insects' guts reveals inventory of rare mammals.

The blowflies and flesh flies that settle on dead animals aren't just feasting on the carrion — they're sampling their DNA. Scientists in Germany have now shown that this DNA persists for long enough to be sequenced, providing a quick and cost-effective snapshot of mammal diversity in otherwise inaccessible rainforests."

complete article: http://www.nature.com/news/flesh-eat...ersity-1.12147