domingo, 28 de agosto de 2011

Science review


Hurricane Irene
Scientists say that it is much easier to accurately predict what path a hurricane will take.
Andy Newman/Associated Press
Scientists say that it is much easier to accurately predict what path a hurricane will take.
Forecasting is far better at estimating where a storm will go than its intensity, since it can be very difficult to get information from the heart of a hurricane.

Seeing Irene as Harbinger of a Change in Climate

Scientists don’t know if hurricanes are currently getting worse because of climate change, but many say they will get more intense as the climate warms.

Hurricane Irene Puts East Coast in Line for Fury

Overnight, the hurricane weakened to a Category One storm, with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles m.p.h., but it remained a dangerous storm.
Kazuo Isobe, who worked at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant before the disaster, opposes a plant near his old home, Iwaishima.

Japanese Island’s Activists Resist Nuclear Industry’s Allure

For nearly 30 years, residents of the Japanese island of Iwaishima have opposed plans to build a nuclear plant near them, heartening anti-nuclear activists.
Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move oil to the Gulf Coast, have protested at the White House for a week.

U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline

A State Department report found sufficient environmental safeguards to proceed with a project to carry oil to Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.
Maurizio Seracini, left, and an assistant, searching for a lost Leonardo, prepare to test a fresco.

Looking for Leonardo, With Camera in Hand

A new effort may reveal if a lost Leonardo mural is behind a fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
A group kayaks down the Los Angeles River as part of a pilot program put on by the Los Angeles Conservation Corps.

Los Angeles River Tries On New Role, as Waterway

The river, known more for movie appearances like chase scene backdrop in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” than its sometimes scarce water, is open to a limited number of boaters weekends this summer.

13 Plants Felt Earthquake, but Reactors Were Spared

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that only one plant, 10 miles from the epicenter in Virginia, experienced a reactor shutdown.
A cargo ship bound for the International Space Station blasted off on Wednesday, but soon fell back to earth.

Russian Rocket Set for Space Falls in Woods

Pieces of an unmanned ship bound for the International Space Station fell in Siberia amid an explosion.
OBSERVATORY

Asteroid Dust Confirms Meteorite Origins

Last year, a Japanese spacecraft brought asteroid dust back to Earth for the first time, and now researchers who studied it have confirmed that most meteorites on Earth originate from asteroids like the one sampled.

Vaccine Cleared Again as Autism Culprit

A report by the Institute of Medicine found that the chickenpox vaccine can cause illness many years later, but that there is no evidence that the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella causes autism.

Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate of Shale Gas

A shale formation has about 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas, according to the report from the United States Geological Survey.

A Rare Bustle in the Lab as Seismometers Quiver

For those engaged in the seemingly paradoxical work of East Coast seismology, Tuesday’s episode was their moment.
Science Times: Aug. 23, 2011
BASICS

Flamingos, Up Close and Personal

ODD BIRD Flamingos can be difficult to study in the wild, but the tedium is offset by the glory of the sight.
Luis Robayo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
ODD BIRD Flamingos can be difficult to study in the wild, but the tedium is offset by the glory of the sight. "They are the coolest-looking bird in the world," said Felicity Arengo, a flamingo expert.
They’re graceful but also raucous and rowdy, and only lately have scientists ventured answers to questions like why they perch on one leg.

Fishing Gear Is Altered to Ease Collateral Costs to Marine Life

Modifications to fishing gear are helping to limit accidental catches of marine creatures in fishing operations.
A CONVERSATION WITH DANIEL LIEBERMAN
HOOF AND MOUTH MAN Daniel Lieberman studies how the human head and foot have evolved over the millenniums.

Born, and Evolved, to Run

Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biology professor at Harvard, spends his time studying how the human head and foot have evolved over the millenniums.
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING Researchers are calling for steps to restore diversity in the Gulf of Maine, and with it the economic diversity of coastal towns like Kennebunkport.

Lobsters Find Utopia Where Biologists See Trouble

Baited traps that help give lobsters a steady food supply and intense fishing of species that prey on them have helped create single-species crowding off Maine’s coast.

To Get to Cats, Common Parasite Hijacks Rats’ Arousal Circuitry

Researchers say Toxoplasma gondii twists rats’ instincts, making them lose their fear of cats — the parasite’s ideal host — by stimulating neurons normally engaged in sexual attraction.
Health News
WELL BLOG

Surgeon General Calls for Health Over Hair

Dr. Regina Benjamin, the U.S. Surgeon General, has called attention to hair concerns that may limit women's exercise.

Mosquitoes and West Nile Virus Reports? They Don’t Keep New Yorkers From Summer

Last week, days after one of the largest rainfalls in New York City history, testing identified West Nile virus in mosquitoes across 33 city ZIP codes, in every borough except Manhattan.
More Multimedia

INTERACTIVE FEATURE: Panoramas: Expanding the Shortcut Between the Seas

In the first expansion in the 100-year history of the Panama Canal, crews are starting to build a new set of locks that will handle much larger ships.

INTERACTIVE FEATURE: Name That Scientist!

How many of these scientists can you recognize?

VIDEO: Life Out There: Eden in a Test Tube

To better recognize extraterrestrial life should they come upon it, scientists are working to create simple life forms in a lab. But, as Dennis Overbye reports, they first have to agree what life is.

VIDEO: Nora Volkow

An interview with the neuroscientist in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who also happens to be the great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky.
Hurricane Tracker: Irene
Follow Irene’s path up the East Coast.
SCIENTIST AT WORK BLOG
The calyx of this Gesneriaceae looks like fireworks.

Discovery and Conservation of Plants

Natural vegetation can be rapidly exhausted in Las Orquideas National Park in Colombia, even by the smallest of human settlements.
Science Columns
OBSERVATORY
The earliest known eutherian from the Jurassic of China.

Ancestors of Humans and Kangaroos Split Even Earlier, Fossil Indicates

A 160-million-year-old fossil found in China is more closely related to modern placental mammals than to modern marsupials.
OBSERVATORY

Tracking the Movement of Ice Across Antarctica

A new digital map illustrates how an intricate pattern of organized ice flow connects the interior regions of the continent with its coast.
OBSERVATORY
Until they mate, acorn woodpeckers devote their time to gathering food for their relatives’ young.

Helping Out the Family, Especially in Good Times

Researchers were surprised to find that helper woodpeckers are actually more beneficial in the spring following a good crop, rather than in one following a poor year.
OBSERVATORY
Without Clasp, plant cells fail to overcome their own boxy geometry, resulting in fewer, smaller cells and dwarf plants.

A Protein That Bosses Plant Cells Around

A protein called Clasp plays an integral role in helping to grow and shape plant cells, researchers report.

Peanut Problems

The processing of the fuel minimizes or eliminates such a risk, one allergy expert says.
Podcast: Science Times
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This week: The dance of the flamingos, new questions about a newborn ritual and malaria in the microwave.
Health Columns
PERSONAL HEALTH

Doctors Hone Message on Kidney Disease

Twenty-six million Americans have chronic kidney disease, and avoiding complications depends heavily on how well patients care for themselves.
REALLY?

The Claim: Drinking Green Tea Can Help Lower Cholesterol

Researchers found that subjects who drank more green tea had a slight drop in levels of LDL cholesterol.
Opinion
DOT EARTH BLOG

Irene Still Seen as Potent on N.Y. Arrival; New City Surge Estimate Serious, But Not Worst Case

Irene will still be a potent hurricane as it reaches New York, but surge forecasts appear to be moderate.
WORDPLAY BLOG

Numberplay: Don't Make a Triangle, Part 2

Mistakes and surprises with Katherine Cook.
REALLY?

The Claim: Drinking Green Tea Can Help Lower Cholesterol

Researchers found that subjects who drank more green tea had a slight drop in levels of LDL cholesterol.

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