miércoles, 23 de marzo de 2011

Science news


Oil Spill in South Atlantic Threatens Endangered Penguins

A major spill of heavy crude oil from a wrecked freighter has coated roughly 20,000 highly endangered penguins on a remote South Atlantic island chain.
Science Times: March 22, 2011
TAME THE FURY A tsunami wave crashed over the breakwater in the coastal city of Miyako on March 11 in northeastern Japan. “I was surprised,” one scientist said. “Nobody expected magnitude 9.”
Tomohiko Kano/Mainichi Simbun, via Associated Press
TAME THE FURY A tsunami wave crashed over the breakwater in the coastal city of Miyako on March 11 in northeastern Japan. “I was surprised,” one scientist said. “Nobody expected magnitude 9.”
The devastation in Japan raises a worrisome question: How many quakes are lurking in underestimated fault lines?

Dangers of Leaving No Resident Behind

As the Japanese are learning, the science behind herding thousands, sometimes millions, of people from danger to safety is uncertain at best.

Radiation, Once Free, Can Follow Tricky Path

How — and how fast — radioactive elements travel depends on many factors, including weather, soil and what they land on first.

F.D.A. Bans Some Food Imports From Japan

The F.D.A. is temporarily halting imports of dairy products and produce from the area of Japan where a nuclear reactor is leaking radiation.
Viktor Koen
People pragmatically intuit that regardless of whether free will exists, our society depends on everyone’s believing it does.
A CONVERSATION WITH SAMANTHA B. JOYE

Revisiting the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Dr. Joye, of the University of Georgia, directs a team seeking to understand the long-term effects of the leak on the chemistry and creatures of the gulf.

Tortoise and Hare, in a Laboratory Flask

Scientists conducting a long-running study found that competition among E. coli bacteria produced a single dominant strain after 1,000 generations.
SCIENTIST AT WORK BLOG

How to Not Catch a Sea Turtle

A scientist studying the use of marine conservation technologies in Ecuador explains how turtle excluder devices keep turtles out of fishing nets.
Health News
WELL BLOG

After a Diagnosis, Wishing for a Magic Number

“What was the chance that my wife’s breast cancer would come back?” a cancer researcher writes
 QUANDARY  One woman is considering a disfiguring operation to remove tungsten.

Riddled With Metal by Mistake in a Study

A device meant to shield healthy tissue from radiation during surgery for breast cancer left hundreds of tiny particles of the heavy metal tungsten inside dozens of patients.
 NEW RECOMMENDATION  A study found that children under 2 are 75 percent less likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries in a crash if they face backward.

Rear-Facing Car Seats Advised at Least to Age of 2

A pediatricians’ group now says that toddlers shouldn’t move to a forward-facing seat until at least age 2.
More Science News
Nick McKeown of Stanford has helped build some of the underpinnings of the technology.

Open Networking Foundation Pursues New Standards

The benefits of new standards, proponents say, would be more flexible and secure networks that are less likely to suffer from congestion.

California: Scientist Accused of Bias

An Interior Department report released Tuesday found that a scientist committed misconduct by misusing photographic evidence that appeared to contradict her contention that an oyster farm’s operations disturbed harbor seals.
A natural gas cargo ship about to berth in Taichung, Taiwan. Analysts are anticipating a new boom in gas consumption.

Natural Gas Now Viewed as Safer Bet

The calamitous events in Japan may roll back the global nuclear revival and lead to a surge in natural gas demand.

Judge Halts California Emissions Plan

The state did not adequately consider alternatives to its plan to create a cap-and-trade market for carbon emissions, the judge ruled.
American house cats “are like gypsy moths and kudzu — they cause major ecological disruption,” one scientist says.

Tweety Was Right: Cats Are a Bird’s No. 1 Enemy

While public attention has focused on wind turbines as a menace to birds, a new study shows that a far greater threat may be posed by a more familiar antagonist: the house cat.
Earthquake in Japan
Visitors last month viewed the shattered remains of the control room for Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

Nuclear Industry in Russia Sells Safety, Taught by Chernobyl

The Japanese nuclear calamity provides Russia’s Rosatom with a new chance to stress its message: its reactors are safe, not despite Chernobyl but because of it.

Radiation Over U.S. Is Harmless, Officials Say

Officials tracking the plume drifting eastward from Japan say it arrived, enormously diluted, from the west and was moving toward Europe.

No Urgent Changes Seen for U.S. Nuclear Plants

Inspectors at each nuclear site have been told to double-check that emergency precautions mandated years ago were still in place, an American official said on Monday.

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