Fish meals 'stop sunburn'

NEWS.com.au (30-08-2005): "EATING three portions of fish a week could offer significant protection from the sun, scientists have found. Over time it could provide a natural defence similar to a weak sun cream. Volunteers improved their resistance to harmful ultra-violet rays by a third after three months. Fish oil is already known to provide a host of benefits including improved concentration in children and protection against heart disease and dementia. The latest discovery suggests it could also help cut the soaring numbers of patients developing skin cancer. As with its other benefits, it is the omega 3 fatty acids in oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines that protect the skin against the DNA damage that causes the disease."

Storms Vary With Cycles, Experts Say - New York Times

Because hurricanes form over warm ocean water, it is easy to assume that the recent rise in their number and ferocity is because of global warming. But that is not the case, scientists say. Instead, the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught "is very much natural," said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season. From 1970 to 1994, the Atlantic was relatively quiet, with no more than three major hurricanes in any year and none at all in three of those years. Cooler water in the North Atlantic strengthened wind shear, which tends to tear storms apart before they turn into hurricanes. In 1995, hurricane patterns reverted to the active mode of the 1950's and 60's. From 1995 to 2003, 32 major hurricanes, with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater, stormed across the Atlantic. It was chance, Dr. Gray said, that only three of them struck the United States at full strength. Historically, the rate has been 1 in 3.

Boost to CO2 mass extinction idea

BBC NEWS: "A computer simulation of the Earth's climate 250 million years ago suggests that global warming triggered the so-called 'great dying'. A dramatic rise in carbon dioxide caused temperatures to soar to 10 to 30 degrees Celsius higher than today, say US researchers. The warming had a profound impact on the oceans, cutting off oxygen to the lower depths and extinguishing most lifeforms, they write in the latest issue of Geology. The research adds to the growing body of evidence that higher temperatures, rather than a giant space rock hitting the planet, led to the greatest mass extinction in history."

Earth's core runs ahead of crust

BBC NEWS: "US scientists claim to have confirmed that the Earth's core is spinning faster than its outer layers. The team compared seismic waves being produced by pairs of earthquakes occurring at the same location on the planet, but at different times. Waves from these nearly identical quakes passed through the Earth's core, they explain in Science magazine. The results show that the inner core is rotating faster than the rest of the planet by about 0.009 seconds per year. Earth has a solid inner core made of iron and nickel that is about 2,400km in diameter and a fluid outer core about 7,000km in diameter. The inner core plays an important role in the dynamo that generates Earth's magnetic field. An electromagnetic torque from this dynamo is thought to drive the inner core to rotate relative to the mantle and crust. Xiaodong Song, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Paul Richards, of Columbia University, argued that the inner core was spinning faster than the rest of the planet in 1996. But their findings were greeted with widespread scepticism."

Sunset Planets

Sunset Planets Originally uploaded by riley27. 8.26.2005 Venus, Jupiter and the Moon are gathering for a beautiful sunset sky show. August 26, 2005: Something nice is happening in the sunset sky. Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, are converging, and they're going to be beautifully close together for the next two weeks. Step outside tonight when the sun goes down and look west. If there are no trees or buildings in the way, you can't miss Jupiter and Venus. They look like airplanes, hovering near the horizon with their lights on full blast. (Venus is the brighter of the two.) You can see them even from brightly-lit cities.

Adam, Eve and T. Rex - Los Angeles Times

Adam, Eve and T. Rex - Los Angeles Times: The 45-foot-high concrete apatosaurus has towered over Interstate 10 near Palm Springs for nearly three decades as a kitschy prehistoric pit stop for tourists. "Now he is the star of a renovated attraction that disputes the fact that dinosaurs died off millions of years before humans first walked the planet. Dinny's new owners, pointing to the Book of Genesis, contend that most dinosaurs arrived on Earth the same day as Adam and Eve, some 6,000 years ago, and later marched two by two onto Noah's Ark. The gift shop at the attraction, called the Cabazon Dinosaurs, sells toy dinosaurs whose labels warn, 'Don't swallow it! The fossil record does not support evolution.' The Cabazon Dinosaurs join at least half a dozen other roadside attractions nationwide that use the giant reptiles' popularity in seeking to win converts to creationism. And more are on the way. 'We're putting evolutionists on notice: We're taking the dinosaurs back,' said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian group building a $25-million creationist museum in Petersburg, Ky., that's already overrun with model sauropods and velociraptors."

New exhibit at London Zoo - humans - Yahoo! News

New exhibit at London Zoo - humans - Yahoo! News: "LONDON (AFP) - London Zoo unveiled a new exhibition -- eight humans prowling around The 'Human Zoo' is intended to show the basic nature of human beings as they frolick throughout the August bank holiday weekend. 'We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem,' London Zoo said. The scantily-clad volunteers will be treated as animals and kept amused at the central London zoo with games and music."

Don't Get Snookered by Mars Malarkey

Sky and Telescope: " If no one has asked you about it yet, they probably will. A bogus e-mail chain letter, sometimes titled "Mars Spectacular," has been spreading across the Internet. It claims that on August 27th the planet Mars will dazzle the world, appearing brighter than ever in history and "as large as the full Moon to the naked eye." The problem is that "August 27th" is actually August 27, 2003. Mars did make a historically close pass by Earth at that time. The Red Planet puts on another fine show in 2005, but it will pass closest to us in October and November this year, not August. And, of course, to the naked eye Mars will look like a bright star, not the full Moon."

The Body's Biological Clock: Alcohol May Lead To Physiological Anarchy

Circadian rhythms refer to biological phenomena that oscillate within a 24-hour cycle, in keeping with the earth's rotation. A review in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research summarizes new findings on interactions between alcohol and the "clock genes" that underlie circadian rhythmicity.

Project on the origins of life launched

Project on the origins of life launched: "Harvard University is launching a broad initiative to discover how life began, joining an ambitious scientific assault on age-old questions that are central to the debate over the theory of evolution. The Harvard project, which is likely to start with about $1 million annually from the university, will bring together scientists from fields as disparate as astronomy and biology, to understand how life emerged from the chemical soup of early Earth, and how this might have happened on distant planets. Known as the ''Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative,' the project is still in its early stages, and fund-raising has not begun, the scientists said. But the university has promised the researchers several years of seed money, and has asked the team to make much grander plans, including new faculty and a collection of multimillion-dollar facilities. The initiative begins amid increasing controversy over the teaching of evolution, prompted by proponents of ''intelligent design,' who argue that even the most modest cell is too complex, too finely tuned, to have come about without unseen intelligence. President Bush recently said intelligent design should be discussed in schools, along with evolution. Like intelligent design, the Harvard project begins with awe at the nature of life, and with an admission that, almost 150 years after Charles Darwin outlined his theory of evolution in the Origin of Species, scientists cannot explain how the process began. Now, encouraged by a confluence of scientific advances -- such as the discovery of water on Mars and an increased understanding of the chemistry of early Earth -- the Harvard scientists hope to help change that. ''We start with a mutual acknowledgment of the profound complexity of living systems,' said David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard. But ''my expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention.'"

Key claim against global warming evaporates - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

Key claim against global warming evaporates - LiveScience - MSNBC.com: "By Ker ThanUpdated: 5:51 p.m. ET Aug. 11, 2005For years, skeptics of global warming have used satellite and weather balloon data to argue that climate models were wrong and that global warming isn't really happening.Now, according to three new studies published in the journal Science, it turns out those conclusions based on satellite and weather balloon data were based on faulty analyses.The atmosphere is indeed warming, not cooling as the data previously showed."

Uncle Sam's Defcon Jam

The Wire August 11 2005 : Radar Online: "In a move akin to your guidance counselor showing up at a kegger to advise you to avoid throwing your life away, officials from the Defense Department visited the 12-sided die-chucking, ponytailed masses in Vegas for the national hackers convention, Defcon. Hackers responded by offering free T-shirts to anyone who outed a federal agent at what could be called the lamest undercover operation since a young Donald Rumsfeld tried to infiltrate the Dungeons & Dragons convention in '76 dressed as a wizard. The Defense Department was actually on a recruiting mission. For what, no one would say specifically, although they are often rumored to be looking for geeks who could help them launch computer attacks on foreign governments. Jim Christy, director of the Pentagon's Cyber Crime Institute (they teach that?), said recruiters weren't looking for criminals. "We're looking for people who haven't crossed that line yet. You've got to get folks with the right morals," he said."

Calling All Luddites

New York Times: "I've been thinking of running for high office on a one-issue platform: I promise, if elected, that within four years America will have cellphone service as good as Ghana's. If re-elected, I promise that in eight years America will have cellphone service as good as Japan's, provided Japan agrees not to forge ahead on wireless technology. My campaign bumper sticker: 'Can You Hear Me Now?' I began thinking about this after watching the Japanese use cellphones and laptops to get on the Internet from speeding bullet trains and subways deep underground. But the last straw was when I couldn't get cellphone service while visiting I.B.M.'s headquarters in Armonk, N.Y.But don't worry - Congress is on the case. It dropped everything last week to pass a bill to protect gun makers from shooting victims' lawsuits. The fact that the U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband connectivity aroused no interest. Look, I don't even like cellphones, but this is not about gadgets. The world is moving to an Internet-based platform for commerce, education, innovation and entertainment. Wealth and productivity will go to those countries or companies that get more of their innovators, educators, students, workers and suppliers connected to this platform via computers, phones and P.D.A.'s.A new generation of politicians is waking up to this issue. For instance, Andrew Rasiej is running in New York City's Democratic primary for public advocate on a platform calling for wireless (Wi-Fi) and cellphone Internet access from every home, business and school in the city. If, God forbid, a London-like attack happens in a New York subway, don't trying calling 911. Your phone won't work down there. No wireless infrastructure. This ain't Tokyo, pal."

South Korean Scientists Create World's First Cloned Dog

New York Times: "SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Man can now reproduce his best friend -- South Korean scientists announced on Wednesday they had created the world's first cloned dog. Woo-Suk Hwang and his team of researchers at Seoul National University made world headlines earlier this year when they created stem cells with a patient's specific genetic material, derived through cloned embryos. Now they have cemented their place as leaders in the field by creating Snuppy, the first dog cloned from adult cells by somatic nuclear cell transfer. This is the same technique used to create Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal, and other animals. Hwang said the breakthrough in cloning dogs may advance work on combating diseases by therapeutic cloning with stem cells. 'Our research goal is to produce cloned dogs for (studying) the disease models, not only for humans, but also for animals,' Hwang told a press conference. Snuppy, short for for Seoul National University puppy, where Hwang's lab is located, is a male born by caesarean section weighing 530 grams (19 ounces) on April 24 after a normal, full-term pregnancy in a yellow Labrador surrogate mother"

The Puppy Clone

_41372789_dog_clone_inf416 Originally uploaded by ReidAnderes. Scientists in South Korea have produced the first dog clones, they report in Nature magazine this week. One of the puppies died soon after birth but the other, an Afghan hound named Snuppy, is still doing well after 16 weeks, the researchers say

Warming trend linked to fiercer hurricanes - Science - MSNBC.com

Warming trend linked to fiercer hurricanes - Science - MSNBC.com: "Is global warming making hurricanes more ferocious? New research suggests the answer is yes.Scientists call the findings both surprising and alarming because they suggest global warming is influencing storms now rather than in the distant future.However, the research doesnt suggest global warming is generating more hurricanes and typhoons."