NPR Launches Climate Connections

Climate Connections is a multi-faceted series just launched by National Public Radio in collaboration with National Geographic.

Listen to the story of China's "Coal-Fueled Boom has Costs" from Morning Edition today, and hear Coal miner Wu Gui, who has been working the mines for 34 years, describe his role in China's economy as "a glorious job."

"I am making a contribution to the country," he says. "If we couldn't find coal, China couldn't get richer and more powerful, and we wouldn't be able to improve people's living standards."

NPR correspondent Louisa Lin points out that "China will build 500 coal-fired power plants in the next decade, at the rate of almost one a week. This massive appetite for coal means equally huge greenhouse gas emissions."

Other stories in the series include a report on England's fast-growing vineyards, yielding award-winning wines, thanks to a warming climate and longer growing season, and the advent of olive farming in Devon.
Visit Climate Connections: A Global Voyage for NPR stories on climate change around the world.

Earth-like Planet Discovered in Libra

From NPR.org
by Nell Boyce

Morning Edition, April 25, 2007 · Scientists have discovered a new planet in the constellation Libra. The small, rocky planet is special because it appears to have mild temperatures, like Earth. Researchers believe it looks like the first planet outside of our solar system that could be home to liquid water, and maybe even life.
Listen to the story on NPR

[image: an artist's illustration of the planet, which scientists think is either rocky, or covered with oceans. From NPR.org]

Audubon Exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History

John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Open through April 29, 2007

The name John James Audubon is synonymous with the study and preservation of American wildlife. His masterpiece, "The Birds of America" folio (the "baby" folio edition is in the science library) and his lifetime of written journals stand as an unsurpassed contribution to the world of fine art, natural science and American history and literature.

John James Audubon's art and aesthetic legacy continue to amaze and inspire. His visionary and prophetic concerns for the environment continue to speak to new generations throughout America and the world today. Met this man of contradictions — John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist, on display in the Museum’s Corning and Fawick galleries from February 10 through April 29. The exhibition, which traces Audubon’s life and development as an artist, features 60 Double Elephant Folio-sized, hand-colored engravings from his masterwork, The Birds of America, printed between 1826 and 1838.

When completed, the final Birds of America folio comprised four volumes (each weighing 50 pounds) containing 435 life-sized, hand-colored plates portraying 1,065 individual birds. Each set sold for $1,000, and fewer than 200 bound copies were printed. (Most of the original copper plates were sold years later by Audubon’s destitute widow for their value as scrap metal; only about 80 were saved.)

Also on exhibit are 10 other Audubon prints, three from the smaller and less expensive Royal Octavo edition of The Birds of America and seven from the Imperial Folio of the Quadrapeds, created with son John Woodhouse Audubon. Visitors can see works by Audobon’s contemporaries, original letters, documents, personal items, rare books and photographs. There are also other originals by Audubon, including oil paintings, a drawing and watercolors with his field notes.

In addition to the traveling exhibition from the John James Audubon Museum and State Park in Henderson, Kentucky, the The Cleveland Museum of Natural History will display some of its own Audubon holdings, which include a first-edition Double Elephant Folio of Birds of America, two unbound reprint sets of the Folio and a complete set of the 1876 edition of American Ornithology by Alexander Wilson, a contemporary (and competitor) of Audubon.

Directions to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Giant Bats Snatch Birds from Night Sky

From NPR.org Morning Edition April 18
by John Nielsen

Every spring, billions of songbirds in Europe migrate north to their breeding grounds. They often fly at night, when few predators are around. But now researchers have found evidence that giant noctule bats in Europe are catching and eating songbirds mid-flight. The songbirds often migrate at night in an attempt to avoid predators.

“[The bats] wrap the prey between their wings and the tail membrane, so they make kind of a cage for the bird... It was something that shocked all bat scientists.” Ana Popa-Lisseanu, Bat Ecologist
[Listen to John Nielsen's full story on NPR]

These surprising research findings were published Feb. 14, 2007, in Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS ONE), an open-access journal:
Bats' Conquest of a Formidable Foraging Niche: The Myriads of Nocturnally Migrating Songbirds

Authors: Ana G. Popa-Lisseanu, Antonio Delgado-Huertas Manuela G. Forero, Alicia Rodríguez, Raphaël Arlettaz, Carlos Ibáñez.

[image from Figure 1 in the PLoS One article: "Nyctalus lasiopterus showing its impressive teeth to the researchers."]

Interested in more about bat ecology? Check out the book with the same title:

Bat Ecology / edited by Thomas H. Kunz and M. Brock Fenton
University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Against All Odds, Scientists Isolate Protein

Summary from the Chronicle of Higher Education [access by subscribers only after April 17]

By RICHARD MONASTERSKY

"Using sophisticated medical equipment designed for studying human diseases, a team of scientists has isolated fragments of proteins inside the bones of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex, a find that shatters expectations about how quickly biological materials decay in fossils.

"The discovery also points to a new method for unraveling the evolution of extinct animals, and it could potentially settle major debates, such as whether birds evolved from dinosaurs or a different group of reptiles.

"If the work can be verified by other laboratories, it suggests fossilized bone might harbor far more information than scientists have ever suspected." The research was reported in Science April 13, in articles on pp. 277-280 and 280-285, by a team that included Mary Higby Schweitzer, an assistant professor of paleontology at North Carolina State University, as well as members from Harvard and Montana State Universities and the University of Chicago. [access to Science articles for subscribers only].

Image from "Sue at the Field Museum" The Field Museum, Chicago.

Global Warming Impacts Will Worsen in Coming Decades

Richard Kerr (Science April 13, News Focus) summarizes the latest report of the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Report of Working Group II (WGII) was released last week, following the release in February of the Working Group I Report.

Excerpt from Kerr's analysis:
"The latest IPCC report sees a bleak future if we humans persist in our ways. The climate impacts, mostly negative, would fall hardest on the poor, developing countries, and flora and fauna--that is, on those least capable of adapting to change. Even the modest climate changes expected in the next few decades will begin to decrease crop productivity at low latitudes, where drying will be concentrated. At the same time, disease and death from heat waves, floods, and drought would increase. Toward midcentury, up to 30% of species would be at increasing risk of extinction."

Read more @ Science.

EPA Weakens Support for Scientific Staff and Libraries

The Environmental Protection Agency continues its hemorrhaging of libraries, library service and support for its own scientific staff, threatening the integrity of research on which environmental policy is framed and enforced. The consequences for our nation's waterways, air quality, species diversity and overall health of residents and the environment are significant, and should concern every citizen. Read more:

Jeff Ruch, Writers on the Range: Why would a federal agency trash its libraries? Summit Daily News, April 10, 2007. Ruch is the Executive Director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which has led the fight to save the libraries [as described in several posts on Open Access News, by Peter Suber]. Excerpt from Ruch:

...As its in-house scientific staff shrinks, EPA is relying more and more heavily on corporate research in making health and safety decisions. This self-lobotomy at EPA will leave a public agency that is far less capable and independent, and as we enter the final months of the Bush administration, EPA managers seem determined to accelerate the self-destruction.

On the new book shelf: Figuring It Out: Science, Gender and Visual Culture

One of the books in the series "Interfaces: Studies in Visual Culture", Figuring It Out: Science, Gender and Visual Culture (Edited by Ann B. Shteir and Bernard Lightman) is now on the new book shelf. The book is a collection of fifteen essays analysing gender in the imagery of science.

The Editorial Review begins, "In light of recent debates about the culture of contemporary science and the place of women in scientific fields, Figuring It Out: Science, Gender, and Visual Culture offers a timely consideration of the role of gender in the imagery of modern Western science. Representing a wide array of interdisciplinary fields, the contributors focus on pictures of male and female figures as a way to study the workings of gender in science while using gender as a way to examine how visual images in science contain and convey meanings."

Go to amazon.com to read the full editorial review.

Find a excerpt from the book on amazon online reader.

Dust Bowl Redux : Drying Effect of Human-Caused Climate Change

From Scientific American news of the week:

"A research team, led by a group at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) in Palisades, N.Y., reveal in this week's Science that southwestern North America will likely be saddled with increasingly arid conditions during the next century. This drying effect, the researchers say, is directly related to man-made climate change and will demand new methods for managing water resources in the region. They based their findings on 19 climate models, all of which contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report released in Paris in early February."
Read the Scientific American summary.

Read the paper abstract in Science Express Reports :
Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America. Richard Seager, Mingfang Ting, Isaac Held, et al.
Published online 9 April 2007 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1139601]

Saving the World's Natural Wonders from Climate Change

Recently, a briefing paper was released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) describing the devastating effects of climate change on some of the natural wonders of the world. A summary of the paper entitled "Natural Wonders Feel the Heat" is available in the "press releases" section of the WWF website. The summary begins:

"5 Apr 2007. Brussels, Belgium – From the Amazon to the Himalayas, ten of the world’s greatest natural wonders face destruction if the climate continues to warm at the current rate, warns WWF.

Released ahead of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Second Working Group Report, a WWF briefing — Saving the world's natural wonders from climate change — reports on how the devastating impacts of global warming are damaging some of the world’s greatest natural wonders, such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef shown in the accompanying image. [Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.]

Other natural wonders include: the Amazon; other coral reefs; Chihuahua Desert in Mexico and the US; hawksbill turtles in the Caribbean; Valdivian temperate rainforests in Chile; tigers and people in the Indian Sundarbans; Upper Yangtze River in China; wild salmon in the Bering Sea; melting glaciers in the Himalayas; and East African coastal forests."

Read the full briefing paper online: Saving the World's Natural Wonders from Climate Change

Source: http://www.docuticker.com/?p=12321

An Inconvenient Truth: slide show and discussion, April 11. All are invited.

Senior Ben Purdone will show slides from Al Gore's Oscar-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" at an open meeting on Wednesday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Peace Community Church (44 E. Lorain St., just east of the Allen Art Museum). Discussion about solutions will follow the slide show, focusing on what can be done individually and as a community, to address the crisis of global warming. All are welcome.

There are thousands of peer-reviewed scientific articles that document the myriad of symptoms of global warming, and predict the disastrous consequences of unchecked rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Recent summaries for general readers appeared as the cover story of a special issue of Time magazine and as a top story in the April 7 New York Times. See also Time magazine's photo essay of the "proof happening all around us."

The science library's copy of Al Gore's book is currently checked out, as are most of the 63 copies owned by libraries in the OhioLINK central catalog . There are just a few still available for loan, for OhioLINK members.

--

On the new book shelf: The Creating Brain

The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius, by Nancy C. Andreasan, is now on the new book shelf. Author of two other books in the science library, this latest title by Andreasan has been reviewed in a number of scholarly sources and by readers on Amazon.com.

Writing in Applied Cognitive Psychology Dec. 2006, Daniel Nettle writes:

"Andreasen’s book is aimed at the general reader, and it gives accessible overviews of some basics of neuroscience, and of the psychology of creativity. The latter she distinguishes from intelligence, and she characterises it, drawing on both personal accounts by creators and psychological studies, in terms of divergent, associative, often unconscious processes. She also neatly reviews the evidence for relationships between psychopathology and creativity, particularly the high rates of affective disorder found amongst artists and writers." [from the article in the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, available to OhioLINK users only]

Find other published reviews by searching the title of the book and "review" in Science Citation Index general search.

Polar Bears Recommended for Endangered Species List

From the Environment Ohio Web site:

"We need to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, as science has shown that global warming is having a negative impact on their populations. If they were listed, we could use the law to limit CO2 emissions, the number one cause of global warming."

Use the form at Environment Ohio to urge the inclusion of polar bears as a species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Photograph by Norbert Rosing, from National Geographic.

Senators Boxer and Sanders Introduce Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act

Environment Ohio
is sponsoring a petition in support of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, just introduced into the U.S. Senate by California Senator Barbara Boxer and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

You can join the effort by communicating with your senators from the Environment Ohio web site.

Text of the petition:
I urge you to cosponsor the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309), which would prevent the worst effects of global warming by setting science-based limits to reduce global warming pollution by at least 15-20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest Annouced by UCS

The Union of Concerned Scientists, together with a panel of highly accomplished celebrity cartoonists, has launched Science Idol 2007: the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest. They are seeking "creative, original, and compelling cartoons" to help communicate the impact of political interference on our health, safety, and environment.

The UCS maintains that "political interference [through censorship, manipulation, and suppression of federal government science] has hurt our air quality, allowed FDA approval of harmful drugs, and prevented the public from hearing the truth about global warming." So get out your best pen, sharpen your wit, and submit your best effort to the panel of judges.

FIRST PRIZE: An all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to tour the UCS offices and have lunch with Washington Post Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Tom Toles, plus:

$500 cash
Cartoon printed in UCS publications and featured on the UCS website
Cartoon featured on the cover of the 2008 Scientific Integrity calendar
Fifty copies of the 2008 calendar, including one signed by all celebrity judges

Contest Guidelines.

Potential for Environmental Disaster Fuelled by Burning American Coal

The Future of Coal, a report released by an interdisciplinary study group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, predicts that coal consumption in the U.S. will grow significantly by mid-century, and urges a massive scale-up of technologies to capture carbon released by coal burning. Ernest Moniz, director of the M.I.T. Energy Initiative and co-chair of the group that produced the report, asserts that the "United States and the rest of the world is not demonstrating the necessary urgency," needed to develop effective methods for sequestering carbon underground, to reduce the amount of carbon released to the atmosphere.

New Scientist, March 17, covers the report in "this week" [image, from page 14] and in a brief editorial on page 5. The March 17 issue of New Scientist is on the browsing rack of journal issues received this week in the science library.

Related web site: MIT Laboratory for Energy and Environment.

On the New Book Shelf: The Microstructure of Dinosaur Bone

The Microstructure of Dinosaur Bone: Deciphering Biology with Fine-Scale Techniques, by Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan (now on the science library new book shelf) was recently reviewed in the Quarterly Review of Biology by Tim J. Fedak. Read the review online on page 57 of the March 2006 (Vol. 81 Issue 1) issue.

Fedak states, "The book provides many fine examples that demonstrate how studies of fossil skeletons are improved by analysis of bone microstructure. Several chapters focus on the discovery, structure, physiology, and growth of dinosaur bone; however, the book also remains comparative in approach, with histological studies of bone in mammals, birds, turtles, whales, and other vertebrates discussed. Although the volume will be of interest to a wide audience of biologists, the core readership will remain vertebrate paleontologists, each of whom should have a copy of this book in their reference library."

U. S. House of Representatives OKs Whistleblower Bill

From Science News of the Week

by Eli Kintisch

"The U.S. House of Representatives has broadened protection for government scientists who claim that their bosses have undermined the scientific process or suppressed information. Last week, legislators passed The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act by a margin wide enough--331 to 94--to withstand a promised veto from President George W. Bush. But the measure faces an uphill road in the Senate." Read more at Science.

The Union of Concerned Scientists supports the bill, and provides more commentary on their web site.

Al Gore to Testify Before Congress on Global Warming

A Message from Al Gore, in preparation for testimony before Congress:

At the hearing before Congress, I will deliver 294,374 messages already signed, demonstrating that hundreds of thousands of people share my sense of urgency regarding global warming.

If an additional 55,626 people sign our message, it will be as though 350,000 of us are there at the hearing expressing our determination to convince Congress to act. Having served in the House and Senate, I can tell you that members of these committees would find this to be a meaningful and impressive show of support. There are only 5 days left before the hearings begin, so please do not pass up this opportunity to join in showing the broad public support we need in order to solve the climate crisis.

Sign the message.

Ask someone else to also visit http://www.algore.com/cards.html.

On the New Book Shelf: Understanding Space-Time

Understanding Space-Time : the philosophical development of physics from Newton to Einstein, by Robert DiSalle (now on the new book shelf) was recently examined by Michael Freidman in an extensive essay review, published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (2007): 216-225. Read the review on the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center (for OhioLINK library users only).

Friedman states "Robert DiSalle’s new book introduces, and beautifully exemplifies, a novel approach to the philosophy of space–time physics." He concludes with the observation, "Not only does it bring a fresh perspective to the familiar historical development from Newton to Einstein, it integrates this development with the parallel history of philosophy of space, time, and geometry from Kant through Helmholtz and Poincare´ , and it suggests a powerful response, as well, to the Kuhnian problem of conceptual incommensurability. DiSalle’s book, despite its relatively modest length, is a magnificent achievement in the history and philosophy of space–time physics, which no one seriously interested in the topic can now afford to ignore."

Sign the Petition! Call for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research

Petition for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research in the United States

Sign this petition to register your support for free and open access to research funded by the U.S. Federal government. For more information on current policies and legislation for taxpayer access to federally funded research – including the Federal Research Public Access Act – visit the Alliance for Taxpayer Access Web site.

Rachel Carson Online Book Club Begins This Month

Celebrate Rachel Carson's legacy by joining an online book club sponsored by the The Friends of the National Conservation Training Center. The book club is held in
conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s efforts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth.

Beginning in March 2007, and continuing through November 2007, participants will read books written by and about Rachel Carson. Titles include:

• Silent Spring
• Lost Woods
• Always, Rachel
• The Edge of the Sea
• Under the Sea-Wind
• The Sense of Wonder

And the Winners Are... Globie Awards Announced by Environmental Defense

From Environmental Defense:

We're pleased to announce the winners of the first-ever Global Warming Globie Awards.

Based on the votes from more than 20,000 online supporters, we've chosen the best and worst global warming performances - from public officials to corporate leaders.

Their actions in recent years - from promoting solutions to obstructing real action - got them nominated. But your votes determined the winners.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels narrowly edged ahead of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by fewer than 30 votes, for spearheading a national effort to organize America's cities to cut carbon dioxide pollution 7% below 1990 levels by 2012. The "U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement" has been signed by 393 mayors representing over 57 million Americans.

View the rest of the winners.

Wikipedia: Knowledge to the People. An Interview With the Founder.

New Scientist, February 3-9, 2007 (vol. 193, no. 2589) features an interview with Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, founder of Wikipedia. It offers insight into the amazing growth and popularity of this collaborative enterprise, and touches on plans for the search engine [search.wikia.com].

This issue of New Scientist is now on display with other journals received this week. The exclusive interview may be read online at newscientist.com.

newscientist.com also offers the Readers Q & A with Wikipedia founder.

image: from newscientist.com; Jimbo Wales during the interview.

Pimp Your Bookcart Contest Winners

One of the winners of the Pimp Your Book Cart contest, @ Overdue Media, creators of the Unshelved comic strip.

This may seem far afield from science - but creativity is a huge part of any scientific endeavor (see C.M. Hall's essay on science and poetry on the wall across from the chemistry office), and these "pimped" book carts are nothing if not testimony to creativity, innovation, and technical expertise. So enjoy!

See all the winners and notable entries.

Feel inspired? Start planning now for next year's contest! We have a big red book cart that could definitely use a bit of imagination.

Science.gov Version 4.0 Launched

From a Science.gov press release dated Feb. 16, 2007

"At Science.gov, a single query can be launched across more than 50 million pages of government-sponsored science information and research results. Science.gov allows users to search the surface Web as well as the deep Web, where traditional search engines typically cannot go. The information is free and no registration is required.

"Hosted by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) Science.gov is the gateway to reliable science and technology information from 16 organizations within 12 federal science agencies."

Huge Underground Lakes Discovered Beneath Rapidly Flowing Glaciers in Antarctica

From NPR.org Morning Edition:
"Researchers have discovered vast lakes under the ice in Antarctica, a find that could help scientists understand the rapid and currently unpredictable behavior of huge moving glaciers — called ice streams — that can influence global sea levels."

NPR correspondent Richard Harris interviews scientists who can help answer the question "how quickly might the earth's vast ice sheets melt, and quickly will sea level rise?"

Helen Fricker, Scripps Institution of Oceangraphy, and her colleagues report in an article soon to be published in Science that more than 145 underground lakes have been documented in Antarctica. Water in these lakes is moving rapidly from one lake to another and even out to sea, accelerating the flow of glaciers on the surface. Glaciers breaking off the continent into the Antarctic Ocean cause global increases in sea level. [listen to the story on Morning Edition]

Image from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Read the accompanying story on rifts in glaciers.

Library Closed Through Wednesday

Snow Closing Update: The college remains closed through Wednesday, with the exception of essential services for student dining, safety & security, the heating plant, etc. See Oberlin Oncampus for more info. Reserve materials due on Tuesday or Wednesday will not result in overdue fines if returned by 10 a.m. on Thursday. Questions? Email Alison Ricker or IM alisonricker (Yahoo or AOL). Thank you!

More snow art from Calvin. The "The Boogarious Baffoon" - by Bill Watterson.

Snow Emergency Declared - Library Closed

Due to the severe weather now and predicted to continue this evening, the college is closed. See the campus alert on Oberlin Oncampus. Reserve materials checked out this afternoon with due times after 2:30 p.m. may be kept overnight and returned to the library on Wednesday, February 14 - assuming we will be open for business by then!


Snow art by Calvin (Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Watterson)

Vote for the Best and Worst Preformances in the Fight Against Global Warming

From Environmental Defense:
GLOBAL WARMING GLOBIES

Vote for Globie Winners

Forget the red carpet - we're rolling out the green and announcing our first ever global warming Globie Awards.

Our nominees embody the best and worst performances in the fight against global warming.

And best of all, you get to choose who wins! Vote here.

Winners will be announced the Friday before the Oscars.

Study Carrels Available in the Science Library

Want a corner of the science library that's all yours? Sign up for a study carrel. Study carrel application

We have 30 carrels, where you are welcome to leave checked out books, papers, and other materials needed for research and study. No food, please, and beverages are allowed only in certain types of containers. Food & Drink policy.

Study carrels will be assigned February 12, after 3:30 p.m.

Listen to Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

As reported by Timothy J. Crone and associates in PLoSOne, deep-sea hydrothermal vents produce a variety of sounds. Their recordings are "the first unambiguous field recordings showing that these vents radiate significant acoustic energy."

The Sound Generated by Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smoker Hydrothermal Vents.
Timothy J. Crone, William S.D. Wilcock, Andrew H. Barclay, Jeffrey D. Parsons, School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.

"Hydrothermal flow through seafloor black smoker vents is typically turbulent and vigorous, with speeds often exceeding 1 m/s. Although theory predicts that these flows will generate sound, the prevailing view has been that black smokers are essentially silent. The sounds contain a broadband component and narrowband tones which are indicative of resonance."

Listen to the audio files on T. J. Crone's web site @ Univ. of Washington School of Oceanography.

Small Brains, Big Fight: 'Hobbits' Called New Species

From Science news this week, by Michael Balter

This week, a research team presented new data in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that it says support the contention that a diminutive, small-brained hominid found on the Indonesian island of Flores truly represents a new species.

Read the news summary at www.sciencemag.org.

Read the research article at PNAS: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0609185104

“Green Budget” Calls for Restoration of Vital Conservation Program Funding

From The Wilderness Society, January 30, 2007 press release:

The nation’s leading environmental groups released the annual “Green Budget” for fiscal year 2008, calling on Congress and the president to restore adequate funding to protect public health and natural resources for the American people. Last year, the Bush administration tried to cut environmental spending by $4.3 billion -- 13 percent below FY 2006 levels.

Advocates say adequate funding for the programs listed in the Green Budget would provide critical resources to help combat global warming, clean the air, improve water quality and protect nature and wildlife.

Not Even Wrong. Peter Woit's view of superstring "theory"

From the book blurb: Wolfgang Pauli coined the phrase "not even wrong" to describe scientific theories or ideas that are "so incomplete that they could not even be used to make predictions to compare with observations to see whether they were wrong or not." Peter Woit, lecturer in the mathematics department of Columbia University, puts forth the view that superstring theory is such an idea, not a theory at all, because it offers no predictions and this "very lack of falsifiability is what has allowed the subject to survive and flourish."

Now on the new book shelf. Not Even Wrong.

See also Peter Woit's blog by the same title, which gives a handy link to book reviews.

Subject searches in OBIS on string models and superstring result in a number of relevant titles.

Dialogue, Not Diatribe: Collaboration in Science in Environment and BioScience

The January 2007 issues of Environment and BioScience, both on display in the science library, consider the essential need to dialogue in order to "advance cross-displinary research" (Eigenbrode, S.D., et al., BioScience 57(1): 55) and effectively integrate science and policy through "joint fact finding" (Karl, H.A., L.E. Susskind and K.H. Wallace, Environment 49(1): 20).

The critical need to refine communication among scientists in different disciplines and between scientists and policy makers, as well as scientists and the general public, and is further examined by AIBS President Douglas Futuyma in his editorial Science's Greatest Challenge (also in the January issue). Futuyma states, "The challenge that matters now is to make sure that science is taken seriously... can a pragmatic people not see that a scientific consensus is more trustworthy than the pronouncements of an industry-sponsored naysayer or a president untrained in biology or physics?" Toward this end, the AIBS will work with the National Academy of Sciences to make 2009 the "Year of Public Understanding of Science."

image: Environment 49(1): 20.

New Light on Ancient Worlds Through Geological Research

The January 2007 issues of Geotimes and Geology each feature icons of ancient civilizations on their covers. Odysseus, as memorialized in a museum located in the Villa of Tiberius, Sperlonga, Italy, draws the reader to the Geotimes report on "Finding Ithaca," the story of how geologists are helping to locate the possible real-world sites in Homer's epic poem Odyssey.

Geology pictures Pueblo Bonito, "the largest ruin at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico... The abandonment of dwellings by ancestral Americans, such as those at Chaco, may have been caused by sudden shifts in climate. Asmerom et al.* suggest that solar variability, via modulation of the tropical Pacific, may be the cause of Holocene climate change." Both journal issues are on the new journal display rack today.

*Asmerom, Y. V.Polyak, S.Burns, J.Rassmussen. Solar forcing of Holocene climate: new insights from a speleothem record, southwestern United States. Geology 35 (1): 1-4.

Novel Neuropeptides, Mass Spectrometry and Peptidomics in Analytical Chemistry, Jan. 1, 2007

Now on the science library's current journal display, and at the American Chemical Society publications site: Analytical Chemistry, Jan. 1, 2007:

MS applied to the discovery of novel peptides from the brain. Marcus Svensson, Karl Skold, Anna Nilson, Maria Falth, Katarina Nydahl, Per Svenningsson, and Per E. Andren.

"Per E. Andren and colleagues at Uppsala University and the Karolinska Institutet describe neuropeptidomics approaches in brain lysates and tissue section to study peptide expression in disease models and to identify potentially biological active neuropeptides."

The authors provide a helpful overview of neuropeptides (smallish proteins present throughout the nervous system) and the technology of visualizing and analyzing proteins with mass spectrometry. Wikipedia gives a handy definition of one of the techniques used by the researchers: MALDI MS.

Reverse Panspermia Considered in Sky & Telescope

In the January issue of Sky & Telescope, now on the science library's current journals display, Selby Cull describes the hypothetical journey of a bacteria-laden rock hurtling from Earth through space, propelled by a mighty asteroid-earth collision on the scale of the Chicxulub impact.

Speculation that endospores from bacteria billions of years old might survive such a journey and successfully colonize inhospitable surfaces found on Europa, Titon and Mars is not so far-fetched, says Cull. Take a break from your Winter Term activities and check out this issue, which also considers how black holes helped build the universe and includes marvelous photographs from the land rovers on Mars, Opportunity and Spirit. Selby Cull, editorial intern for Sky & Telescope in the summer of 2006, wrote the text accompanying the "Martian photo opportunity" in addition to the story of bacteria launched by asteroid impact.

The Power of Plagues - on the new book shelf

Our most recent shipment of new books includes The Power of Plagues by University of California, Riverside, biologist Irwin W. Sherman (ASM Press, Washington, DC, 2006). Sherman's book has been reviewed by several authors, notably Stephen Greenberg in JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association July 5, 2006, vol. 296, p. 101 (available in print in the science library), and by J. G. Rigau-Pérez in Emerging Infectious Diseases, online October 2006.

Dr. Greenberg notes that the strength of the book is the historical discussion of specific diseases, and that it should appeal to a "broad lay audience" as well as graduate students and advanced undergraduates in biology. Related works in the college library:

• Rats, Lice and History
• Plagues and Peoples
• The Coming Plague.

A Bit of Chemistry for Christmas

Thanks to a posting in Stephanie Bianchi's Sci-Tech Library Newsletter (National Science Foundation).

Kids may enjoy using chemistry to solve the “Christmas Cookie Mystery”

If you weary of the traditional, try caroling with song lyrics by chemists and physicists:

• Science Jokes: Chemistry Poetry
• Iona Prep Physics Christmas Carols
  
• Chemistry Carols
• Physics Carols
  

Michael Faraday started a series of Christmas lectures on chemistry in 1827. These lectures show that the relationship chemists have with Christmas is timeless. The Royal Institution still hosts Christmas lectures today.

Fossil Helps to Redraw the Mammalian Family Tree

From the current issue of Nature:

"Distant relatives of today's flying squirrels probably existed at least 135 million years ago; much earlier than anyone had suspected. That is the conclusion of a team of researchers led by Jin Meng, who have found the fossilized remains of a new species of mammal" (see Nature 14 December, p. 889).

Read the story behind the discovery of this ancient glider in inner Mongolia.

Undermining Science... in the Bush Administration

Seth Shulman's book on the "suppression and distortion" of science in the (G. W. ) Bush administration is now on the new book shelf. The first quotation in the book comes from an editorial in Scientific American:

"It is increasingly impossible to ignore that this White House disdains research that inconveniences it."

(Bush-League Lysenkoism. Scientific American, May 2004, Vol. 290 Issue 5, p10; full-text available through EBSCOhost).

More documentation of the misrepresentation of scientific data and research findings is available from the Union of Concerned Scientists and Bush Greenwatch.

Optogenetics: Optics & Genetics Combine to Stimulate and Visualize the Nervous System

From Science news this week:
Shining New Light on Neural Circuits
by Greg Mille

"When researchers from Yale University reported last year that they'd used a laser to activate neurons in fruit flies and in turn control the insects' behavior, even Jay Leno thought it was cool. In a skit, the Tonight Show host pretended to use a remote-controlled fly to harass President George W. Bush during a speech. "I thought it was actually quite funny," says Gero Miesenböck, the neuroscientist who led the study. A video clip of Leno's skit elicited chuckles when Miesenböck played it during a presentation at October's meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta, Georgia." [more from Science]

IMAGE: An optical fiber delivers light to stimulate photosensitive neurons deep in a mouse's brain. (from Science 15 December 2006: Vol. 314. no. 5806, pp. 1674 - 1676)

CREDIT: ALEX ARAVANIS AND KARL DEISSEROTH/STANFORD

To read abstracts from the Mini Symposium on Optogenetics at the Society for Neurocience, October 2006, go to the Society's annual meeting website http://www.sfn.org/am2006/, select the neuroscience meeting planner, then search for Miesenbock as author in the advanced search.

Goodbye Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer, Yangtze River Dolphin)

The Chinese River Dolphin, or Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer), found only in the Yangtze River, was declared "functionally extinct" after a 6-week expedition failed to find even one dolphin still living in the river. The Three Gorges Dam project, pollution and over hunting were cited as causes for extinction, giving the Baiji the unwelcome designation as the first large aquatic mammal driven to extinction by human activity since the 1950s.

Learn more about the Baiji's biology and conservation attempts in Conservation Biology, vol. 20, no. 3 June 2006, on the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center.
image from the BBC.

Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design: news from Nature, Science, and a book by Michael Shermer

Why Darwin Matters: the Case Against Intelligent Design, by Michael Shermer, just arrived in the science library, nicely provides in depth context for recent items in Nature and Science:

Anti-evolutionists raise their profile in Europe Nature vol. 444: 406-407 (23 November 2006)

Public Acceptance of Evolution Science vol. 313: 765-766 (11 August 2006). Erratum, Sep 22: 1739.

An Obstacle to the Acceptance of Evolution Science Science 12 Oct 2006 [eletters]

image from the publisher's Web site, Henry Holt and Co., Times Books.

On the New Book Shelf: Voices from Chernobyl

Among the new books received today is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Voices from Chernobyl: an Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich. Read excerpts from the book at NPR.org - part of a twenty-year retrospective on the explosion of a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine.

• more book info from Powells.com
• more stories on Chernobyl, then and now, from NPR.

U.S. Study Finds Slower Breakdown of Plutonium in Stockpiled Weapons

From Science news of the week
by Eli Kintisch
A new U.S. government analysis has found that the plutonium at the heart of the country's nearly 10,000 stockpiled nuclear weapons could last twice as long as previously thought. That conclusion is likely to escalate the debate over the Bush Administration's campaign to build a new generation of weapons. (Read more.)

Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5805/1526?etoc

The Day Oberlin College Went Climate Neutral

Join the activities in the Adam Joseph Lewis Environmental Center today and celebrate the college's commitment to develop a plan for becoming climate neutral. See the Oberlin events calendar for details, including:

• noon - Lecture by Karen Florini, OC '79
• 2 pm - National Wildlife Federation Teleconference
• 4:30 pm - Lecture by Kris Petersen and Greg Berger
• 7:30 pm - Reception and art installation

The art installation will reveal what became of all those incandescent light bulbs replaced with energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs campus-wide (including bulbs at the science library reading tables).

[More info on Oberlin's climate neutrality pledge from the Oberlin Review.]

Take the Holiday Song Challenge!

Environmental Defense invites you to join the Holiday Song Challenge, and create a video of you and your friends singing a holiday song with a global warming theme. View their staff video for inspiration, or other entries on the YouTube Holiday Song Challenge group, then submit your own production to YouTube.

While you're at the Environmental Defense site, take time to read their Five Big Ideas for the Environment for 2007.

Supreme Court Considers Auto Carbon Emissions and the Clean Air Act

Listen to ScienceFriday for Dec. 1, as host Ira Flatow reviews with guests the arguments presented last week to the Supreme Court, in its first case ever to deal with global warming.

From ScienceFriday.com: "How might the court's ruling might affect what we drive in the future? We'll also take a look at the upcoming session of Congress. With Democrats poised to take over leadership of both houses of Congress next month, how will the new Congress tackle the issue of climate change?" Listen to the broadcast.

More on this case is posted on the Natural Resources Defense Council web site, with frequently updated links to numerous news sources.