Articles from Scientific America
Astrobiologist tries to set the record straight about extraterrestrial life on Titan
Titan, Saturn's largest moon and the second-biggest natural satellite in the solar system, is an unquestionably interesting place. It's a world with a thick atmosphere and with lakes, fog and rainfall--only with liquid hydrocarbons rather than liquid water. [More]
Saturn - Titan - Solar System - Extraterrestrial life - Water
Slosh and Berm: Building Sand Barriers off Louisiana's Coast to Hold Back Oil Spill Has Low Probability of Success
In an effort to stem the tide of oil washing ashore in Louisiana, small "berms" of sand now plug gaps in barrier islands along the coast. Such structures are intended to provide a barrier to oil penetrating into marshes and other wetlands, where it can persist for decades. Already, more than 250 kilometers of coastline have been touched by the output of the ongoing oil spill, which has now spewed as much as 170 million liters of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico. [More]
Gulf of Mexico - Oil spill - Louisiana - Barrier island - Wetland
Nature Boosts Self-Evaluation of Vitality
It’s refreshing. It’s invigorating. And it leaves you feeling truly alive. No, I’m not talking about a cold shower or a fruit smoothie with a mochachino chaser. I’m talking about nature. Because according to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology , getting outside--or even just thinking about it--can increase your vitality. [Richard Ryan et al, http://bit.ly/c01WHQ ] [More]
Journal of Environmental Psychology - Environment - Social Sciences - Psychology - Journals
One in 10 veterans returns from combat in Iraq reporting serious mental health issues
Veterans of war have been known to suffer from high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and traumatic brain injury in addition to any physical wounds. And a new study of thousands of U.S. Army soldiers returning from combat duty in Iraq found up to 31 percent reported symptoms of PTSD or depression as long as a year after returning from the battlefield. [More]
Mental health - Posttraumatic stress disorder - Health - Iraq - Iraq War
Did CIA doctors perform torture research on detainees?
Doctors and other health professionals working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) might have been illegally performing research on detainees after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a new report issued by the advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights. [More]
Central Intelligence Agency - Human rights - United States - Torture - Human Rights and Liberties
Butterfly Wings Scale Copies Could Fight Forgers
Counterfeiters and money minters constantly try to outsmart each other. But money could become much harder to forge--thanks to butterfly wings.
Butterflies that flit through tropical forests often have brightly colored wings that irridesce in the sun. But it’s not pigments that create those eye-catching shades. It’s microscopic structures on the insects’ wings that reflect the light.
[More]Insect - Butterfly - Butterflies - Recreation - Shopping
Sex Lives of Crickets Revealed
[Sound of cricket mating call.] That's a cricket love song. Male crickets rub their legs together to produce the chirp in a bid to lure females. But 64 motion-sensitive infrared cameras have revealed that male crickets don't just sing for their mates--they actively seek them out. [Tregenza et al, http://bit.ly/dkWL1U ] [More]
Mating - University of Exeter - Biology - Flora and Fauna - Animalia
Mind over mass: Cholesterol levels might be controlled by brain circuitry
When your stomach growls and you have the urge to reach for the nearest snack, it is, in a way, your tummy talking . Those signals are in part sparked by the gut-based hunger hormone ghrelin , which blocks certain receptors in the brain, telling your body when it is time to eat. [More]
Health - Cholesterol - Hormone - Conditions and Diseases - Ghrelin
Why so many artists have lazy eyes, and other things art can teach us about the brain
NEW YORK--When ancient denizens of central France painted leaping horses on the cave walls at Lascaux, they might not have had the late Renaissance understanding of how to illustrate perspective and three dimensions. But they did, with simple black lines, give the implication of depth, showing the far pair of limbs behind the closer pair. [More]
France - Lascaux - art - Brain - Art History
Web site shows how a tumor grows in 3-D
Ever wondered what it looks like when tumor cells grow inside the body? Drug maker Amgen is hoping to sate this morbid sort of Fantastic Voyage with a new Web site that takes viewers through the various stages of tumor angiogenesis in 3-D. Angiogenesis is a physiological process whereby new blood vessels grow from existing vessels. Although this process is a normal part of the body's ability to grow and heal itself, angiogenesis is also the path through which tumors transition from benign to malignant. [More]
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Expedition Great White
Expedition Great White
A team of experts lands the ocean's fiercest predators, studies them live on deck, and releases them unharmed. New Series Premieres Sunday at 9P on National Geographic Channel. Learn more at
natgeotv.com/greatwhite
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Cancer - Tumor - Blood vessel - Angiogenesis - Fantastic Voyage
Scientists Will Monitor Deepwater Horizon Methane Plumes for Gulf Oil Spill Answers
Much of the focus at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site has been on the oil pouring out of the damaged well, but some researchers are beginning to turn their attention to the methane , or natural, gas escaping along with the gushing crude. Careful study of this methane, which comprises about 40 percent of the riser pipe output, is expected to provide scientists with a wealth of information, including a more accurate calculation of the spill's magnitude and thereby a better understanding of its impact on ocean life. [More]
Presented By:
Expedition Great White
Expedition Great White
A team of experts lands the ocean's fiercest predators, studies them live on deck, and releases them unharmed. New Series Premieres Sunday at 9P on National Geographic Channel. Learn more at
natgeotv.com/greatwhite
Ads by Pheedo
Deepwater Horizon - Oil spill - Methane - Energy - Environment
Surprise scar that appeared on Jupiter last year looks to have been an asteroid impact
When a mystery object smacked into Jupiter without warning in July 2009 , an event whose aftermath was first spotted by an amateur astronomer in Australia, observers across the globe scrambled to get a look at the planet to figure out just what had happened. [More]
Jupiter - Australia - Amateur astronomy - Planet - Astronomy
Threatened tortoises become tempting targets for thieves
Imagine having a pet in your family for 79 years and through four generations. Now imagine that during that time your pet became an endangered species. Finally, imagine having that pet stolen from your backyard. [More]
Presented By:
Expedition Great White
Expedition Great White
A team of experts lands the ocean's fiercest predators, studies them live on deck, and releases them unharmed. New Series Premieres Sunday at 9P on National Geographic Channel. Learn more at
natgeotv.com/greatwhite
Ads by Pheedo
Endangered species - United States - Tortoise - Environment - Biodiversity
Warning: New Doctors May Pose Health Risk
July is coming. It’s a time to fire up the barbecue, hit the beaches and watch the fireworks. It’s definitely not a time to be in the hospital. Because fatal medical errors peak in July, an increase that happens to coincide with the annual arrival of new medical residents. That’s according to a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine . [David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barker, http://bit.ly/aHihSS ]
Could new docs really be deadly? That’s what sociologists at the University of California, San Diego, were wondering. They examined almost a quarter of a million death certificates issued in the U.S. between 1979 and 2006. And they focused on those that showed a mistake with medication as the primary cause of death. They then recorded the month in which the error was made, and whether the incident occurred in a county with teaching hospitals. Turned out that fatal medication errors spiked only in July, which is when new residents hit the wards. And this peak was seen only in regions where training takes place.
[More]Medicine - Internal medicine - David Phillips - Residency - Medical error
How Will the Oil Spill Impact the Gulf's Dead Zone?
Each spring and summer fertilizer from the fields of the U.S. Midwest runs off into the Mississippi River. Old Muddy carries the nutrients down the length of the continent before dumping them into the Gulf of Mexico. Once introduced, the nitrogen and phosphorus prompts a bloom in algae, phytoplankton and other microscopic plants. After the plants die they drift to the bottom and their decomposition sucks the oxygen out of the seawater. The result is a vast dead zone , lethal to sea life that cannot swim out of the way, in inhabitable waters near the Gulf Coast that is sometimes as large as New Jersey--and the as much as 3.8 million liters of oil now spilling into the Gulf per day may make it worse. [More]
Gulf of Mexico - Mississippi River - Dead Zone - New Jersey - Mississippi
The sex lives of wild crickets captured on video
As the seasons heat up annually, males and females start looking for mates, and two summers' worth of steamy drama outside of a small European town have now been caught on tape. [More]
Human sexual behavior - Drama - Sexuality - Politics of Sexuality - Advice
The 2010 Kavli Prizes honors eight scientists in astrophysics, nanotech and neuroscience
Eight scientists will share three million-dollar Kavli Prizes for their contributions in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. The announcement was made today in Oslo, Norway, by Nils Christian Stenseth , president of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and broadcast live at the opening of the World Science Festival in New York City. The laureates will each receive a scroll, a gold medal and a share of the $1 million prize for each of the three fields.
Jerry Nelson from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Ray Wilson formerly of Imperial College London in the U.K., and Roger Angel from the University of Arizona will share the astrophysics prize for their innovations in giant telescope design. Donald Eigler from IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., and Nadrian Seeman from New York University will jointly accept the nanoscience prize for illuminating the basic units of matter and the building blocks of nanotechnology . Thomas Südhof from the Stanford University School of Medicine, Richard Scheller from the San Franscisco-based biotech company Genentech and James Rothman from Yale University together will take the neuroscience prize for revealing how neurons communicate with each other.
[More]Imperial College London - Nanotechnology - Yale University - World Science Festival - New York City
What's next for synthetic life?
COLD SPRING, N.Y.-- J. Craig Venter and his colleagues recently announced that they had created the first cell to run on a fully artificial genome. So what's next for this synthetic strain of microscopic Mycoplasma mycoides and the new technology? [More]
Mycoplasma - Craig Venter - Synthetic life - Technology - Genome
