SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

Today's Headlines - January 28, 2008

Why Water Is So Utterly Weird

from Science News

You wouldn't expect to learn much about the properties of water by
watching
a square dance. But think again. Following the caller's lead, the
dancers
meet, separate, weave, and swing in a perfectly fluid manner.

It turns out that similar coordinated maneuvers - with water molecules
taking the places of the dancers - may be responsible for some of
water's
most puzzling features, an array of recent research findings suggest.

As liquids go, water is a radical nonconformist - differing from other
liquids in dozens of ways. Most famous among water's peculiarities is
its
density at low temperatures. While other liquids contract and get denser
as
they cool toward their freezing points, water stops contracting and
starts
to expand. That's why ice floats and frozen pipes burst.

To read more: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080126/bob9.asp

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2e2vbn


Can Darwin's Lab Survive Success?

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

For anyone touring the Galapagos Islands, it is hard to imagine the
globe's
first World Heritage Site is at risk. The marine reserve is populated
with
sea turtles and humpback whales, and the national park's trails are
inhabited by herons and albatrosses.

Yet last June, Unesco added the archipelago to its "in danger list,"
specifically citing the fragile ecosystem and the negative effects of a
sizable growth in tourism.

The number of visitors to the Galapagos rose more than 250 percent to
145,000 in 2006 from 40,000 in 1990, while the number of commercial
flights
to the area has increased 193 percent from 2001 to 2006.

To read more: http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/travel/27green.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/3857ee


What Business Know-How Can Do for Disease

from the New Yorker

Last May, Kathy Giusti was in midtown Manhattan pitching her current
venture to an audience of potential investors. Giusti, a
forty-eight-year-
old Harvard Business School graduate and former pharmaceutical
executive,
believes that medical breakthroughs shouldn't be left to chance.

In 1998, she created the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, a
charitable
organization dedicated to the lethal blood cancer, which afflicts more
than
fifty thousand Americans and has no known cure.

Most medical charities focus on increasing public awareness and on
raising
money to distribute to researchers, ... Giusti runs hers as if it were a
for-profit business, expecting high returns on the money she raises ...

To read more:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/28/080128fa_fact_groopman

Or: http://tinyurl.com/37m5sz


Your Couch Is Caught in a Flammable Regulatory Battle

from the Washington Post (Registration Required)

Since its inception, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has grappled
with how to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from accidental
fires.
It chose to tackle the problem by crafting a regulation to make
upholstered
furniture less flammable.

A record 14 years later, a rule is heaving into sight, with a final vote
possible later this year. If the regulation is approved, it will end a
protracted battle among a far-flung set of interests. The story behind
the
rule and why it took so long offers a glimpse at the constraints under
which the CPSC operates.

Hemmed in by jurisdictional dictates and sometimes hampered by a lack of
clear scientific evidence, the commission became caught in the middle of
warring industries.

To read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012503170.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2ntb6c


What the Boss Looks Like Determines How He Performs

from the Economist

A couple of years ago a group of management scholars from Yale and the
University of Pittsburgh tried to discover if there was a link between a
company's success and the personality of its boss. ... When the data
were
analysed, the researchers found no evidence of a connection between how
well a firm was doing and what its boss was like.

... A few years before this, however, a team of psychologists from Tufts
University, led by Nalini Ambady, discovered that when people watched
two-
second-long film-clips of professors lecturing, they were pretty good at
determining how able a teacher each professor actually was.

... Now, Dr Ambady and her colleague, Nicholas Rule, ... have shown that
even a still photograph can convey a lot of information about
competence ...

To read more: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?
story_id=10559771

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2752pa


U.S. Warns Satellite Will Fall to Earth Soon

from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

WASHINGTON -- Senior government officials said Saturday that they were
closely watching a failing U.S. spy satellite that had begun the process
of "de-orbiting" and cautioned that the large device was no longer
controllable and could hit the Earth as early as late February.

"Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation," said
Gordon
Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Numerous
satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly
..."

U.S. officials are unable to maneuver the satellite, and Johndroe
declined
to say whether it would be possible to shoot down the spy apparatus
before
it plummets to Earth.

To read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-
satellite27jan27,1,3024230.story

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2ngzuq


New Fault Found in Europe; May "Close Up" Adriatic Sea

from National Geographic News

A newly identified fault running under the Adriatic Sea is building more
of
Croatia's Dalmatian Islands and bulking up the Dinaric Alps, a new study
says. Both the islands and the mountain chain ... were believed to have
stopped growing 20 million to 30 million years ago.

But scientists found that at the new fault the leading edge of the
Eurasian
tectonic plate is sliding over the South Adria microplate.

"The southern Adria microplate is covered by a thick layer of buoyant
rocks
called carbonates," said lead researcher Richard A. Bennett of the
University of Arizona in Tucson.
"As the Adria plate moves northeast toward Europe, the carbonate layer
is
scraped off of the microplate, much like snow in front of a snowplow."

To read more:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080125-europe-
fault.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yno7q2


Biologist Wayne Grody: My Life as an Advisor to TV and Film

from the Scientist (Registration Required)

In Eddie Murphy's remakes of the Nutty Professor movies, the main
character
had a working molecular biology lab, with real state-of-the-art
equipment.
But it wasn't the director's job to figure out what the set needed to
convince moviegoers of its authenticity -- it was mine.

I have had the privilege of serving as a technical advisor on a number
of
motion picture and television productions, by virtue of my field of
expertise (molecular and clinical genetics) ... and my location at the
University of California, Los Angeles ...

I have found that the filmmakers ... have much in common with the
scientific and medical colleagues I work with at UCLA. All are genuinely
interested in these topics and want to learn as much about them as they
can.

To read more: http://www.the-
scientist.com/templates/trackable/display/news.jsp?
type=news&o_url=news/display/52942&id=52942

Or: http://tinyurl.com/ys9ml2


What Are We Thinking When We (Try to) Solve Problems?

from Scientific American

Aha! Eureka! Bingo! ... Everyone knows what it's like to finally figure
out
a seemingly impossible problem. But what on Earth is happening in the
brain
while we're driving toward mental pay dirt?

Researchers eager to find out have long been on the hunt, knowing that
such
information could one day provide priceless clues in uncovering and
fixing
faulty neural systems believed to be behind some mental illnesses and
learning disabilities.

Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London report in the journal
PLoS
ONE that they monitored action in the brains of 21 volunteers with
electroencephalography (EEG) as they tackled verbal problems in an
attempt
to uncover what goes through the mind - literally - in order to observe
what happens in the brain during an "aha!" moment of problem solving.

To read more:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=what-are-we-thinking-when

Or: http://tinyurl.com/3c5h2c


Battlefields Will Be Big Test for 'Seeing' Robot

from the Christian Science Monitor

Burlington, Mass. - For decades, military grunts have crawled into caves
and stormed houses blindly, not knowing the layout of the enclosure or
whether the enemy lay in wait.

But in a year or so, the first man through the door might not be a man
at
all, but a robot the size of a toy wagon capable of navigating through
the
room and creating a 3-D map of it almost instantaneously.

The battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to provide the first
test for a potential breakthrough in robotics: the ability to "see" well
enough and quickly enough to move through unknown terrain without human
help.

To read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0125/p03s04-usmi.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2hckxx