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


Today's Headlines - March 10, 2008

Gauging Age of Universe Becomes More Precise

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

The universe is 13.73 billion years old, give or take 120 million years,
astronomers said last week.

That age, based on precision measurements of the oldest light in the
universe, agrees with results announced in 2006. Two additional years of
data from a NASA satellite known as the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe have narrowed the uncertainty by tens of millions of years.

"Everything is tightening up and giving us better and better precision
all
the time," said Charles L. Bennett, a professor of physics and astronomy
at
Johns Hopkins University and the leader of the group analyzing the
data. "It's actually significantly better than previous results. There
is
all kinds of richness in the data."

To read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/science/space/09cosmos.html

Or: http://snipurl.com/21civ


Extended Daylight Saving Time Not an Energy Saver?

from National Geographic News

On Sunday people in the United States [rolled] their clocks forward an
hour
at 2 a.m. to begin the country's second consecutive year of extended
daylight saving time.

The change, adopted into law last year, was touted as a way to save
energy.
But some studies suggest the move actually has consumers using more
power -
and paying bigger energy bills.

Hendrik Wolff, an environmental economist at the University of
Washington
in Seattle, is skeptical of the purported savings. Wolff and colleague
Ryan
Kellogg studied Australian power-use data surrounding the 2000 Sydney
Olympics, when parts of the country extended daylight saving time to
accommodate the games.

To read more: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080307-
daylight-saving.html

Or: http://snipurl.com/21cic


Supernova Outbreak: X-Rays Signal Earliest Alert

from Science News

Thanks to a lucky break and an overactive galaxy, astronomers have for
the
first time caught a massive star in the act of exploding.

Most supernovas aren't identified until they generate an outpouring of
visible light, long after key information about the size and other
properties of the collapsing star has vanished.

The new finding suggests that astronomers using wide-angle X-ray
telescopes
could routinely witness the very beginnings of hundreds of supernova
explosions each year, suggest Alicia Soderberg and her colleagues in an
online posting.

To read more: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080308/fob3.asp

Or: http://snipurl.com/21chz


CDC Scrambles to Reassure on Vaccine Safety

from the Baltimore Sun

Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
scrambled [Thursday] to reassure the public that childhood vaccines are
safe after news spread that another agency had acknowledged a link
between
a child's autism and the shots she received as a toddler.

"Our message to parents is that immunization is life-saving," Dr. Julie
Gerberding, the CDC's director, said at a hastily convened conference
call
with reporters. "There's nothing changed. ... This is proven to save
lives
and is an essential component of protection for children across America
and
around the world."

During the years, despite a small and vocal group of parents who insist
otherwise, studies have consistently shown no credible link between
vaccines and autism. But pediatricians who have long reassured
suspicious
parents braced for another cascade of questions.

To read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-
te.autism07mar07,0,4923337.story

Or: http://snipurl.com/217ll


Space Freighter Unpacks in Orbit

from BBC News Online

Europe's new ATV space truck is up and running following Sunday's
launch,
although one propulsion glitch means a back-up system is currently being
used.

The freighter is sitting in a 260km high orbit and is due to deliver
just
under five tonnes of supplies to the space station on 3 April. The
anomaly
has shut down seven of 28 attitude control jets and one of the space
truck's four main engines.

Engineers are now investigating with a view to getting them all back
online. Even if they cannot, the vehicle is more than capable of
completing
its approach and docking to the space station, say European Space Agency
(Esa) officials.

To read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7287417.stm

Or: http://snipurl.com/21eg0


Producers of Heparin Turn Up Scrutiny of Supply Chain

from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

As worries over the heparin blood thinner critical to hospitals and
dialysis centers spread to Europe, Chicago-area makers of the product
said
Friday that they are ratcheting up scrutiny of their own product supply
chains in China and the U.S.

The moves come in the wake of alerts from the Food and Drug
Administration,
which is searching for the cause of deadly allergic reactions in the
U.S.
from heparin made by Deerfield-based Baxter International Inc. and
sourced
from China.

A huge producer of pigs, China is the largest supplier of the enzyme
found
in the mucous lining of the animal's intestines that is needed to
produce
heparin. Investigators are looking in China for an answer to the mystery
and are focusing partly on the fact that suspect "heparin-like" material
was found in Baxter's product.

To read more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-
sat_baxter-fdamar08,1,7438201.story

Or: http://snipurl.com/21cje


Archaeologists Unveil Finds in Rome Digs

from the San Francisco Examiner

ROME (Associated Press) - A sixth-century copper factory, medieval
kitchens
still stocked with pots and pans, and remains of Renaissance palaces are
among the finds unveiled Friday by archaeologists digging up Rome in
preparation for a new subway line.

Archaeologists have been probing the depths of the Eternal City at 38
digs,
many of which are near famous monuments or on key thoroughfares.

Over the last nine months, remains - including Roman taverns and 16th-
century palace foundations - have turned up at the central Piazza
Venezia
and near the ancient Forum where works are paving the way for one of the
30
stations of Rome's third subway line.

To read more: http://www.examiner.com/a-
1265364~Archaeologists_Unveil_Finds_in_Rome_Digs.html

Or: http://snipurl.com/21cjo


Bacterium Gets Wheels Turning on Ethanol Fuel

from the Washington Post (Registration Required)

A strain of bacteria accidentally found in the Chesapeake Bay more than
20
years ago -- a bug that decomposes everything from algae to newspapers
to
crab shells -- could help produce cheaper fuel, according to scientists
at
the University of Maryland.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) will tout the work of professors Steven
Hutcheson
and Ronald Weiner on campus today in announcing that Zymetis, a U-Md.
spinoff company, will use the organism to generate ethanol.

The hope is that the bacterium can be used to produce ethanol more
efficiently and inexpensively and in effect recycle junk into energy.
The
bacterium, which is very difficult to find in nature but easily
reproduced
in the lab, has turned bench scientists into entrepreneurs.

To read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030901983.html

Or: http://snipurl.com/21edd


AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

from the Miami Herald (Registration Required)

(Associated Press) - A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including
antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have
been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million
Americans,
an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny,
measured
in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of
a
medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter
medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking
water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences
to
human health.

To read more:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/450114.html

Or: http://snipurl.com/21egl


Self-Styled Cyborg Dreams of Outwitting Super Intelligent Machines

from Scientific American

As Kevin Warwick gently squeezed his hand into a fist one day in 2002, a
robotic hand came to life 3,400 miles away and mimicked the gesture. The
University of Reading cybernetics professor had successfully wired the
nerves of his forearm to a computer in New York City's Columbia
University
and networked them to a robotic system back in his Reading, England,
lab.

"My body was effectively extended over the Internet," Warwick says. It's
a
far cry from his vision of transforming humanity into a race of half-
machine cyborgs able to commune with the digital world - there is no
spoon,
Neo - but such an evolution is necessary, says 54-year-old Warwick.

Those who don't avail themselves of subcutaneous microchips and other
implanted technology, he predicts, will be at a serious disadvantage in
tomorrow's world, because they won't be able to communicate with the
"super
intelligent machines" sure to be occupying the highest rungs of society,
as
he explains in a 2003 documentary, Building Gods, which is circulating
online.

To read more: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=cyborg-10

Or: http://snipurl.com/21egy