Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on Earth and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists.
One of the new species has been named as Janibacter hoylei, after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, the second as Bacillus isronensis recognising the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to its discovery and the third as Bacillus aryabhata after India’s celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and also the first satellite of ISRO.
The experiment was conducted using a 26.7 million cubic feet balloon carrying a 459 kg scientific payload soaked in 38 kg of liquid neon, which was flown from the National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing sixteen evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes.
Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in liquid Neon to create a cryopump effect. These cylinders, after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 km to 41 km, were parachuted down and safely retrieved. These samples were analysed by scientists at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad as well as the National Center for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune for independent examination, ensuring that both laboratories followed similar protocols to achieve homogeneity of procedure and interpretation.
The Findings
In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which, based on 16S RNA gene sequence, showed greater than 98% similarity with reported known species on Earth. Three bacterial colonies, namely, PVAS-1, B3 W22 and B8 W22 were, however, totally new species. All the three newly identified species had significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Of the above, PVAS-1, identified as a member of the genus Janibacter, has been named Janibacter hoylei. sp. nov. The second new species B3 W22 was named as Bacillus isronensis sp.nov. and the third new species B8 W22 as Bacillus aryabhata.
The precautionary measures and controls operating in this experiment inspire confidence that these species were picked up in the stratosphere. While the present study does not conclusively establish the extra-terrestrial origin of microorganisms, it does provide positive encouragement to continue the work in our quest to explore the origin of life.
This multi-institutional effort had Jayant Narlikar from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune as Principal Investigator and veteran scientists U.R. Rao from ISRO and P.M. Bhargava from Anveshna supported as mentors of the experiment. S. Shivaji from CCMB and Yogesh Shouche from NCCS were the biology experts and Ravi Manchanda from TIFR was in charge of the balloon facility. C.B.S. Dutt was the project director from ISRO who was in charge of preparing and operating the complex payload.
This was the second such experiment conducted by ISRO, the first one being in 2001. Even though the first experiment had yielded positive results, it was decided to repeat the experiment by exercising extra care to ensure that it was totally free from any terrestrial contamination.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
How Brain Records Memories
It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to research carried out by Wellcome Trust scientists. In a study published in the journal Current Biology , they show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking.
Demis Hassabis and Professor Eleanor Maguire at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have previously studied the role of a small area of the brain known as the hippocampus which is crucial for navigation, memory recall and imagining future events. Now, the researchers have shown how the hippocampus records memory.
When we move around, nerve cells (neurons) known as "place cells", which are located in the hippocampus, activate to tell us where we are. Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues used an fMRI scanner, which measures changes in blood flow within the brain, to examine the activity of these places cells as a volunteer navigated around a virtual reality environment. The data were then analysed by a computer algorithm developed by Demis Hassabis.
"We asked whether we could see any interesting patterns in the neural activity that could tell us what the participants were thinking, or in this case where they were," explains Professor Maguire, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. "Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment. In other words, we could 'read' their spatial memories."
Earlier studies in rats have shown that spatial memories – how we remember where we are – are recorded in the hippocampus. However, these animal studies, which measured activity at the level of individual or dozens of neurons at most, implied that there was no structure to the way that these memories are recorded. Hassabis and Maguire's work appears to overturn this school of thought.
"fMRI scanners enable us to see the bigger picture of what is happening in people's brains," she says. " By looking at activity over tens of thousands of neurons, we can see that there must be a functional structure – a pattern – to how these memories are encoded. Otherwise, our experiment simply would not have been possible to do."
Professor Maguire believes that this research opens up a range of possibilities of seeing how actual memories are encoded across the neurons, looking beyond spatial memories to more enriched memories of the past or visualisations of the future.
"Understanding how we as humans record our memories is critical to helping us learn how information is processed in the hippocampus and how our memories are eroded by diseases such as Alzheimer's," added Demis Hassabis.
"It's also a small step towards the idea of mind reading, because just by looking at neural activity, we are able to say what someone is thinking."
Professor Maguire led a study a number of years ago which examined the brains of London taxi drivers, who spend years learning "The Knowledge" (the maze of London streets). She showed that in these cabbies, an area to the rear of the hippocampus was enlarged, suggesting that this was the area involved in learning location and direction. In the new study, Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues found that the patterns relating to spatial memory were located in this same area, suggesting that the rear of the hippocampus plays a key role in representing the layout of spatial environments.
Demis Hassabis and Professor Eleanor Maguire at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have previously studied the role of a small area of the brain known as the hippocampus which is crucial for navigation, memory recall and imagining future events. Now, the researchers have shown how the hippocampus records memory.
When we move around, nerve cells (neurons) known as "place cells", which are located in the hippocampus, activate to tell us where we are. Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues used an fMRI scanner, which measures changes in blood flow within the brain, to examine the activity of these places cells as a volunteer navigated around a virtual reality environment. The data were then analysed by a computer algorithm developed by Demis Hassabis.
"We asked whether we could see any interesting patterns in the neural activity that could tell us what the participants were thinking, or in this case where they were," explains Professor Maguire, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. "Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment. In other words, we could 'read' their spatial memories."
Earlier studies in rats have shown that spatial memories – how we remember where we are – are recorded in the hippocampus. However, these animal studies, which measured activity at the level of individual or dozens of neurons at most, implied that there was no structure to the way that these memories are recorded. Hassabis and Maguire's work appears to overturn this school of thought.
"fMRI scanners enable us to see the bigger picture of what is happening in people's brains," she says. " By looking at activity over tens of thousands of neurons, we can see that there must be a functional structure – a pattern – to how these memories are encoded. Otherwise, our experiment simply would not have been possible to do."
Professor Maguire believes that this research opens up a range of possibilities of seeing how actual memories are encoded across the neurons, looking beyond spatial memories to more enriched memories of the past or visualisations of the future.
"Understanding how we as humans record our memories is critical to helping us learn how information is processed in the hippocampus and how our memories are eroded by diseases such as Alzheimer's," added Demis Hassabis.
"It's also a small step towards the idea of mind reading, because just by looking at neural activity, we are able to say what someone is thinking."
Professor Maguire led a study a number of years ago which examined the brains of London taxi drivers, who spend years learning "The Knowledge" (the maze of London streets). She showed that in these cabbies, an area to the rear of the hippocampus was enlarged, suggesting that this was the area involved in learning location and direction. In the new study, Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues found that the patterns relating to spatial memory were located in this same area, suggesting that the rear of the hippocampus plays a key role in representing the layout of spatial environments.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Reseach on How to Improve Individual Decesions
Herd mentality. Angry mob. Mass hysteria. As these phrases suggest, we are not always confident that a large group of people will come up with the smartest decisions. So it may be surprising to learn that numerous studies have shown that a crowd of people usually gives more accurate responses to questions compared to a mere individual.
Averaging the responses provided from a group increases accuracy by canceling out a number of errors made across the board (such as over- and under-estimating the answer).
What happens when we are on our own? What if there is no one else around to consult with before making a judgment - how can we be confident that we are giving a good answer? Psychologists Stefan M. Herzog and Ralph Hertwig from the University of Basel wanted to know if individuals could come up with better answers using a technique they designed and called "dialectical bootstrapping."
Dialectical bootstrapping is a method by which an individual mind averages its' own conflicting opinions, thus simulating the "wisdom of the crowd." In other words, dialectical bootstrapping enables different opinions to be created and combined in the same mind. For example, in this study, participants were asked to identify dates of various historical events. After they gave their initial answer, the participants were asked to think of reasons why the answer may be wrong and were then asked to come up with an alternative second (dialectical) answer.
The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal that the average of the participants' first answer with the second answer was much closer to the correct answer, compared to the original answers on their own. In addition, the dialectical bootstrapping method (that is, thinking about why your own answer might be incorrect and then averaging across estimates) resulted in more accurate answers compared to simply making a second guess without considering why the first answer may be wrong.
These findings suggest that dialectical bootstrapping may be an effective strategy in helping us come up with better answers to many types of problems. The researchers note that while it may be frustrating going back and forth between two different answers, "as dialectical bootstrapping illustrates, being of two minds can also work to one's advantage." They conclude, "Once taught about the tool, people could make use of it to boost accuracy of their estimates across a wide range of domains."
Averaging the responses provided from a group increases accuracy by canceling out a number of errors made across the board (such as over- and under-estimating the answer).
What happens when we are on our own? What if there is no one else around to consult with before making a judgment - how can we be confident that we are giving a good answer? Psychologists Stefan M. Herzog and Ralph Hertwig from the University of Basel wanted to know if individuals could come up with better answers using a technique they designed and called "dialectical bootstrapping."
Dialectical bootstrapping is a method by which an individual mind averages its' own conflicting opinions, thus simulating the "wisdom of the crowd." In other words, dialectical bootstrapping enables different opinions to be created and combined in the same mind. For example, in this study, participants were asked to identify dates of various historical events. After they gave their initial answer, the participants were asked to think of reasons why the answer may be wrong and were then asked to come up with an alternative second (dialectical) answer.
The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal that the average of the participants' first answer with the second answer was much closer to the correct answer, compared to the original answers on their own. In addition, the dialectical bootstrapping method (that is, thinking about why your own answer might be incorrect and then averaging across estimates) resulted in more accurate answers compared to simply making a second guess without considering why the first answer may be wrong.
These findings suggest that dialectical bootstrapping may be an effective strategy in helping us come up with better answers to many types of problems. The researchers note that while it may be frustrating going back and forth between two different answers, "as dialectical bootstrapping illustrates, being of two minds can also work to one's advantage." They conclude, "Once taught about the tool, people could make use of it to boost accuracy of their estimates across a wide range of domains."
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Costa Rica Invests in Geothermal Power
The government of Costa Rica hopes to increase its power generation by tapping into volcanic hot spots, and to that end it has introduced a controversial bill in Congress that would allow drilling into volcanoes in national parks.
In January, the governmental Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) announced that it is contracting equipment for the geothermal power station of Las Pailas, on the side of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano, in the northwest province of Guanacaste.
The plant is scheduled to become operational in 2011, adding 35 megawatts to the 163.5 that are already supplied by the five units of the Miravalles volcano power station, in operation since 1994. That same year, a third project, the Borinque, on the northeast side of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano, will be launched.
Geothermal power uses underground steam from volcanic regions. The energy is harnessed by extracting the heat from within the earth’s crust, in the form of a fluid that is used to move the turbines. Two holes are drilled in each case: one is used to draw hot water, and the flow of water is then cooled and re-injected into the other.
In Costa Rica’s case, high temperature wells (150 to 400 degrees Celsius) are used, but there are also medium and low temperature wells.
One of the goals of the ICE is to increase the percentage of geothermal energy that is channelled to the country’s power grid. ICE president Pedro Pablo Quirós told Tierramérica that several sites have been identified in northern Costa Rica, in an area stretching from the Poás volcano to the Nicaraguan border, from which up to 800 megawatts will be generated.
The problem is that these areas identified for geothermal power generation are located in national parks, and thus congressional authorisation is necessary, which explains the bill currently under consideration. Geothermal prospecting is similar to oil prospecting, with drilling usually penetrating 1.7 kilometres deep, but in some cases going down as far as 3.7 kilometres.
The opposition to the project comes from environmental organisations.
The president of the Wildlife Preservation Association (APREFLOFAS), Angeline Marín, told Tierramérica that she was "against the opening up of national parks for any purposes."
Marín believes that by opening the parks up to tourism and putting their habitats at risk, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications has already demonstrated that it is incapable of implementing "precautionary" regulations. APREFLOFAS advocates other forms of power generation, such as solar and wind, "which are less harmful to the environment," she said. Marín fears the effects on wildlife, and suspects that the new power projects are not intended to meet domestic demand, but instead are export-oriented.
Quirós insists that the power generated by these plants will stay in Costa Rica. "We can’t tell the country to stop growing," he said.
The use of existing natural resources and the "definition of regulations to protect the environment" are both essential to growth, he said. He also defended the ICE by pointing out that it is the largest investor in reforestation and that it promotes "environmentally-friendly" projects.
"There wasn’t a single tree" in Miravalles, "and today it is completely reforested," Quirós said.
"If we can’t touch our natural sources, like water or steam, all we have left are nuclear plants," he said. I
n his opinion, geothermal power reduces the country’s dependency on imported fuel.
During the dry season, from December through April, the ICE consumes 90 percent of the national gas-fuel bill - some 260 million dollars - to keep its thermal plants running. Quirós claims that this expense will be cut in half as geothermal power generation increases.
Another advantage of geothermal power is that it is continuously generated, as it is not dependant on weather conditions, like hydroelectric power, which is stretched to its limits during the driest months, when water reserves are low.
Geologist Eddy Fernández, an expert on geothermal energy, says that it is "the ideal complementary source" for hydroelectric power, which accounts for around 80 percent of the country’s power generation.
There is a risk of pollution from toxic gas leakage, but safe operation can be achieved by re-injecting the gases, Fernández told Tierramérica.
Central America could become a leading geothermal power generator, as it is located in the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, an area of high volcanic activity in the Pacific coast, both in Asia and the Americas.
And, Fernández said, Costa Rica must position itself as the subregion’s leading geothermal producer, as "we have been researching this field since the late 1960s."
The North Volcanic Mountain Ridge, in Guanacaste, is the ideal region for geothermal power generation, with its Miravalles, Rincón de la Vieja and Tenorio volcanoes. These are rural areas, and geothermal production would foster "their development, without harming the population," he said.
In January, the governmental Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) announced that it is contracting equipment for the geothermal power station of Las Pailas, on the side of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano, in the northwest province of Guanacaste.
The plant is scheduled to become operational in 2011, adding 35 megawatts to the 163.5 that are already supplied by the five units of the Miravalles volcano power station, in operation since 1994. That same year, a third project, the Borinque, on the northeast side of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano, will be launched.
Geothermal power uses underground steam from volcanic regions. The energy is harnessed by extracting the heat from within the earth’s crust, in the form of a fluid that is used to move the turbines. Two holes are drilled in each case: one is used to draw hot water, and the flow of water is then cooled and re-injected into the other.
In Costa Rica’s case, high temperature wells (150 to 400 degrees Celsius) are used, but there are also medium and low temperature wells.
One of the goals of the ICE is to increase the percentage of geothermal energy that is channelled to the country’s power grid. ICE president Pedro Pablo Quirós told Tierramérica that several sites have been identified in northern Costa Rica, in an area stretching from the Poás volcano to the Nicaraguan border, from which up to 800 megawatts will be generated.
The problem is that these areas identified for geothermal power generation are located in national parks, and thus congressional authorisation is necessary, which explains the bill currently under consideration. Geothermal prospecting is similar to oil prospecting, with drilling usually penetrating 1.7 kilometres deep, but in some cases going down as far as 3.7 kilometres.
The opposition to the project comes from environmental organisations.
The president of the Wildlife Preservation Association (APREFLOFAS), Angeline Marín, told Tierramérica that she was "against the opening up of national parks for any purposes."
Marín believes that by opening the parks up to tourism and putting their habitats at risk, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications has already demonstrated that it is incapable of implementing "precautionary" regulations. APREFLOFAS advocates other forms of power generation, such as solar and wind, "which are less harmful to the environment," she said. Marín fears the effects on wildlife, and suspects that the new power projects are not intended to meet domestic demand, but instead are export-oriented.
Quirós insists that the power generated by these plants will stay in Costa Rica. "We can’t tell the country to stop growing," he said.
The use of existing natural resources and the "definition of regulations to protect the environment" are both essential to growth, he said. He also defended the ICE by pointing out that it is the largest investor in reforestation and that it promotes "environmentally-friendly" projects.
"There wasn’t a single tree" in Miravalles, "and today it is completely reforested," Quirós said.
"If we can’t touch our natural sources, like water or steam, all we have left are nuclear plants," he said. I
n his opinion, geothermal power reduces the country’s dependency on imported fuel.
During the dry season, from December through April, the ICE consumes 90 percent of the national gas-fuel bill - some 260 million dollars - to keep its thermal plants running. Quirós claims that this expense will be cut in half as geothermal power generation increases.
Another advantage of geothermal power is that it is continuously generated, as it is not dependant on weather conditions, like hydroelectric power, which is stretched to its limits during the driest months, when water reserves are low.
Geologist Eddy Fernández, an expert on geothermal energy, says that it is "the ideal complementary source" for hydroelectric power, which accounts for around 80 percent of the country’s power generation.
There is a risk of pollution from toxic gas leakage, but safe operation can be achieved by re-injecting the gases, Fernández told Tierramérica.
Central America could become a leading geothermal power generator, as it is located in the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, an area of high volcanic activity in the Pacific coast, both in Asia and the Americas.
And, Fernández said, Costa Rica must position itself as the subregion’s leading geothermal producer, as "we have been researching this field since the late 1960s."
The North Volcanic Mountain Ridge, in Guanacaste, is the ideal region for geothermal power generation, with its Miravalles, Rincón de la Vieja and Tenorio volcanoes. These are rural areas, and geothermal production would foster "their development, without harming the population," he said.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Sports Injuries in 3D
For several years now doctors have been using ultrasound scanning as a tool for diagnosing sports injuries. Medicine is now in the hands of technology to achieve a clear improvement in imaging quality, which will not only result in a better diagnosis, but also a more effective treatment and subsequent recovery.
This research, led by José Fernando Jiménez Díaz, a specialist in sports medicine from the University of Castilla la Mancha, analysed the usefulness of these new applications in injuries, particularly those produced in work or sports contexts. It has already been used for several years in specialist areas such as gynaecology for the diagnosis and monitoring of pregnancies.
To carry out the assessment, the study, published in the journal Advances in Therapy, compared two high definition ultrasound portable devices. One of the devices had the traditional applications and the other had in its system: harmonic imaging, real time ultrasound, panoramic view, 3D imaging and virtual convex.
Fives types of injuries were compared: muscle contusion, intrinsic muscle lesion, patellar tendonitis, calcified patellar tendonitis and partial rupture of the medial ligament of the knee. The results showed that the new systems incorporated improve the scanning of injured tissues in all types of injury analysed.
"Applications of this technology focus on both the diagnosis and treatment of injuries," Jiménez Díaz explained to SINC. "The new branch of ultrasound scanning, known as intraoperative ultrasound, makes it possible to avoid some of the surgeries that were previously unavoidable when applying ultrasound-guided treatment to the musculoskeletal system."
The promising future of 3-D technology:
While new technological applications have been adopted in major hospitals over the last three to four years, three-dimensional applications in portable or compact devices have only been applied since the beginning of 2007 in the diagnosis of soft tissue injuries (those on the skin, the subcutaneous tissue, the aponeuroses and muscles).
As the researcher indicated to SINC, "the idea behind an improvement in imaging quality is not to give the patient a prettier photo, but rather to improve the scanning of structures, particularly small injuries which are difficult to interpret. This is where the 3-D experience can help achieve optimum injury recovery".
Experts are optimistic about the future of these types of technologies. "The blooming of the ultrasound in diagnosing injuries is yet to come. I hope that applications for scanning structures which we still consider partially blind improve even more. The improvement will enable a safer diagnosis and the application of a more reliable treatment", concluded Jiménez Díaz.
This research, led by José Fernando Jiménez Díaz, a specialist in sports medicine from the University of Castilla la Mancha, analysed the usefulness of these new applications in injuries, particularly those produced in work or sports contexts. It has already been used for several years in specialist areas such as gynaecology for the diagnosis and monitoring of pregnancies.
To carry out the assessment, the study, published in the journal Advances in Therapy, compared two high definition ultrasound portable devices. One of the devices had the traditional applications and the other had in its system: harmonic imaging, real time ultrasound, panoramic view, 3D imaging and virtual convex.
Fives types of injuries were compared: muscle contusion, intrinsic muscle lesion, patellar tendonitis, calcified patellar tendonitis and partial rupture of the medial ligament of the knee. The results showed that the new systems incorporated improve the scanning of injured tissues in all types of injury analysed.
"Applications of this technology focus on both the diagnosis and treatment of injuries," Jiménez Díaz explained to SINC. "The new branch of ultrasound scanning, known as intraoperative ultrasound, makes it possible to avoid some of the surgeries that were previously unavoidable when applying ultrasound-guided treatment to the musculoskeletal system."
The promising future of 3-D technology:
While new technological applications have been adopted in major hospitals over the last three to four years, three-dimensional applications in portable or compact devices have only been applied since the beginning of 2007 in the diagnosis of soft tissue injuries (those on the skin, the subcutaneous tissue, the aponeuroses and muscles).
As the researcher indicated to SINC, "the idea behind an improvement in imaging quality is not to give the patient a prettier photo, but rather to improve the scanning of structures, particularly small injuries which are difficult to interpret. This is where the 3-D experience can help achieve optimum injury recovery".
Experts are optimistic about the future of these types of technologies. "The blooming of the ultrasound in diagnosing injuries is yet to come. I hope that applications for scanning structures which we still consider partially blind improve even more. The improvement will enable a safer diagnosis and the application of a more reliable treatment", concluded Jiménez Díaz.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Mobility of Birds due to Climate Change
Researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) have documented that a variety of North American bird species are extending their breeding ranges to the north, adding to concerns about climate change, according to a study published by the journal Global Change Biology.
In a study published on the journal’s web site, the SUNY-ESF researchers state the change in the birds’ breeding ranges “provides compelling evidence that climate change is driving range shifts.”
“There are a wide spectrum of changes that are occurring and those changes are occurring in a relatively short amount of time. We’re not talking centuries, we’re talking decades,” said William Porter, an ESF faculty member and director of the college’s Adirondack Ecological Center,
Porter worked on the study with Ph.D. student Benjamin Zuckerberg and AEC staff educator Annie M. Woods.
“The most significant finding is that this is the first time in North America that we’re showing the repeating pattern that’s been shown before in Europe,” Woods said. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to replicate those European findings, using the same kind of study.
Focusing on 83 species of birds that have traditionally bred in New York state, the researchers compared data collected in the early 1980s with information gathered between 2000 and 2005. They discovered that many species had extended their range boundaries, some by as much as 40 miles.
“They are indeed moving northward in their range boundaries,” Zuckerberg said.
“But the real signal came out with some of the northerly species that are more common in Canada and the northern part of the U.S. Their southern range boundaries are actually moving northward as well, at a much faster clip.”
Among the species moving north are the Nashville warbler, a little bird with a yellow belly and a loudly musical two-part song, and the pine siskin, a common finch that resembles a sparrow. Both birds have traditionally been seen in Northern New York but are showing significant retractions in their southern range boundaries, Zuckerberg said.
Birds moving north from more southern areas include the red-bellied woodpecker, considered the most common woodpecker in the Southeastern United States, and the Carolina wren, whose “teakettle, teakettle, teakettle” song is surprisingly loud for a bird that weighs less than an ounce.
The study compared data collected during the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Breeding Bird Atlas census, which engaged thousands of citizen volunteers to observe and report the birds they could identify. The first atlas was created between 1980 and 1985; the second was done between 2000 and 2005.
New York was the first state to complete two breeding bird atlases, Zuckerberg said, making it the only state that is able, at this point, to produce this kind of research.
Zuckerberg said similar changes were found in birds that breed in forests and those that inhabit grasslands, in both insectivores and omnivores, and even in new tropical migrants that are typically seen in Mexico and South America.
“What you begin to see is a systematic pattern of these species moving northward as we would predict with regional warming,” he said.
“New York citizens need to recognize that these changes are occurring,” Porter said. “Whether they are good or bad, whether they should be addressed, whether we should adapt to them, whether we should try to mitigate some of this, those are questions that really, rightfully, belong in the political arena.”
Woods said the innate mobility of birds made them an excellent animal to study in connection with adaptation to climate change.
In a study published on the journal’s web site, the SUNY-ESF researchers state the change in the birds’ breeding ranges “provides compelling evidence that climate change is driving range shifts.”
“There are a wide spectrum of changes that are occurring and those changes are occurring in a relatively short amount of time. We’re not talking centuries, we’re talking decades,” said William Porter, an ESF faculty member and director of the college’s Adirondack Ecological Center,
Porter worked on the study with Ph.D. student Benjamin Zuckerberg and AEC staff educator Annie M. Woods.
“The most significant finding is that this is the first time in North America that we’re showing the repeating pattern that’s been shown before in Europe,” Woods said. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to replicate those European findings, using the same kind of study.
Focusing on 83 species of birds that have traditionally bred in New York state, the researchers compared data collected in the early 1980s with information gathered between 2000 and 2005. They discovered that many species had extended their range boundaries, some by as much as 40 miles.
“They are indeed moving northward in their range boundaries,” Zuckerberg said.
“But the real signal came out with some of the northerly species that are more common in Canada and the northern part of the U.S. Their southern range boundaries are actually moving northward as well, at a much faster clip.”
Among the species moving north are the Nashville warbler, a little bird with a yellow belly and a loudly musical two-part song, and the pine siskin, a common finch that resembles a sparrow. Both birds have traditionally been seen in Northern New York but are showing significant retractions in their southern range boundaries, Zuckerberg said.
Birds moving north from more southern areas include the red-bellied woodpecker, considered the most common woodpecker in the Southeastern United States, and the Carolina wren, whose “teakettle, teakettle, teakettle” song is surprisingly loud for a bird that weighs less than an ounce.
The study compared data collected during the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Breeding Bird Atlas census, which engaged thousands of citizen volunteers to observe and report the birds they could identify. The first atlas was created between 1980 and 1985; the second was done between 2000 and 2005.
New York was the first state to complete two breeding bird atlases, Zuckerberg said, making it the only state that is able, at this point, to produce this kind of research.
Zuckerberg said similar changes were found in birds that breed in forests and those that inhabit grasslands, in both insectivores and omnivores, and even in new tropical migrants that are typically seen in Mexico and South America.
“What you begin to see is a systematic pattern of these species moving northward as we would predict with regional warming,” he said.
“New York citizens need to recognize that these changes are occurring,” Porter said. “Whether they are good or bad, whether they should be addressed, whether we should adapt to them, whether we should try to mitigate some of this, those are questions that really, rightfully, belong in the political arena.”
Woods said the innate mobility of birds made them an excellent animal to study in connection with adaptation to climate change.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Nutrition Problems for many Middle-aged & Old Americans
A study determined that many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition.
Using data drawn from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the prevalence, correlates and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease, researchers examined over 6200 participants from 4 ethnic groups, Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and Chinese. Dietary intakes were determined from food frequency questionnaires and respondents were asked to provide amounts and frequencies of micronutrient consumption using label information from their supplements. These data were used to calculate whether the RDAs or Adequate Intake (AI) levels were being met. The large sample size and multiple ethnic groups in this population gave investigators enough power to examine interactions between supplementation and ethnicity.
Over half of the population took supplements, and supplement users were more likely to be older, women, Caucasian and college-educated. Calcium and vitamin C supplements were most common. Although dietary intake of calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C was similar between supplement users and non-users for both men and women, there were differences in median dietary intake levels between the different ethnic groups. Chinese Americans tended to have the lowest dietary intakes, particularly in calcium where both Chinese and African Americans had significantly lower dietary intakes of calcium than Caucasians and Hispanics.
The study also evaluated differences between multivitamins and high-dose supplements. While high-dose calcium was associated with meeting RDA/AIs for all ethnic groups, some high-dose supplements could also cause users to exceed their Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs). For calcium, 15.0% of high-dose users exceeded the UL compared to 1.9% of multivitamin users and 2.1% of non-users. For magnesium, 35.3% of high-dose supplement users exceeded the UL compared to 0% of both multivitamin users and non-users. In addition, 6.6% high-dose vitamin C users exceeded the UL compared to 0% of both multivitamin users and non-users.
The study also found that potassium intake was very much below the RDA whether supplements were taken or not. This could point to a need to reformulate supplements to deliver higher potassium doses.
Writing in the article, Pamela J. Schreiner, MS, PhD, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, states, "The present study indicates a clear association between meeting RDA/AIs and supplement use for calcium, magnesium and vitamin C. However, even with the assistance of dietary supplements many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition, and there was no association between supplement use and meeting the AI for potassium. In addition, those taking high-dose vitamin supplements were more likely to exceed the UL for that nutrient. Future studies should explore dietary supplementation along with other methods to improve nutrition in middle-aged and older Americans."
Using data drawn from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the prevalence, correlates and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease, researchers examined over 6200 participants from 4 ethnic groups, Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and Chinese. Dietary intakes were determined from food frequency questionnaires and respondents were asked to provide amounts and frequencies of micronutrient consumption using label information from their supplements. These data were used to calculate whether the RDAs or Adequate Intake (AI) levels were being met. The large sample size and multiple ethnic groups in this population gave investigators enough power to examine interactions between supplementation and ethnicity.
Over half of the population took supplements, and supplement users were more likely to be older, women, Caucasian and college-educated. Calcium and vitamin C supplements were most common. Although dietary intake of calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C was similar between supplement users and non-users for both men and women, there were differences in median dietary intake levels between the different ethnic groups. Chinese Americans tended to have the lowest dietary intakes, particularly in calcium where both Chinese and African Americans had significantly lower dietary intakes of calcium than Caucasians and Hispanics.
The study also evaluated differences between multivitamins and high-dose supplements. While high-dose calcium was associated with meeting RDA/AIs for all ethnic groups, some high-dose supplements could also cause users to exceed their Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs). For calcium, 15.0% of high-dose users exceeded the UL compared to 1.9% of multivitamin users and 2.1% of non-users. For magnesium, 35.3% of high-dose supplement users exceeded the UL compared to 0% of both multivitamin users and non-users. In addition, 6.6% high-dose vitamin C users exceeded the UL compared to 0% of both multivitamin users and non-users.
The study also found that potassium intake was very much below the RDA whether supplements were taken or not. This could point to a need to reformulate supplements to deliver higher potassium doses.
Writing in the article, Pamela J. Schreiner, MS, PhD, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, states, "The present study indicates a clear association between meeting RDA/AIs and supplement use for calcium, magnesium and vitamin C. However, even with the assistance of dietary supplements many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition, and there was no association between supplement use and meeting the AI for potassium. In addition, those taking high-dose vitamin supplements were more likely to exceed the UL for that nutrient. Future studies should explore dietary supplementation along with other methods to improve nutrition in middle-aged and older Americans."
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Designing Cockpit for World`s Fastest Car
World land speed challenger Andy Green, OBE visited the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) on Thursday to try out for the first time a mock-up of the cockpit he will use in his 1000 mph record attempt. The cockpit test rig, designed and built by second-year product design students, will ensure that cockpit components such as chair and controls are in the optimum ergonomic position for the challenge.
UWE is a founder partner of the Bloodhound Project led by Richard Noble, a previous world land speed record holder. Product Design Senior Lecturer David Henshall said, “The challenge for the students was to consider the performance and ergonomics of the driver's position for a unique event that will take the driver across ten miles in 85 seconds.
“The test rig means that fine adjustments to the position and relationship of all components can be measured and fed into a computer, ensuring the cockpit functions as it should do at such high speeds.”
Twenty students designed and built the cockpit test rig as part of their design studio class during a five week project. The students formed teams of five and each team was allocated a particular part of the rig to work on - steering, controls, seating and pedals.
Product Design Senior Lecturer Drew Batchelor said, “The students worked in conjunction with the Bloodhound team and they have done an exceptional job. After an initial briefing from John Piper (JCB Dieselmax Chief Designer), Andy Green and the Bloodhound design team, the student groups then developed concepts in the product design studios. Drawing on ergonomic data and refining their ideas through prototypes, the various individual elements were then assembled to create the test rig unveiled today. Ensuring that all these components worked together to create a cockpit environment that would function safely at 1000 mph was the key challenge for the group."
Student Hywel Vaughan said, “It isn't often that you can go home at the end of the day and say that you have worked on a land speed record attempt vehicle. Everything had to be spot on. Andy Green (the driver)'s eye line needed to be dead on the 4 degree mark. Any lower and he wouldn't be able to see over the front of the car, any higher and it could interfere with the aerodynamics. It was an exciting challenge to build a rig that could deliver that level of accuracy.”
Driver of the 1,000mph car, Andy Green OBE, said: "There isn't a book to build a car like this and the students can't just look at their dad's car for guidance. The only requirement is to have four wheels. To be faced with a blank sheet of paper is quite frightening. That said, the students at UWE have done incredibly well and its the support of universities such as The University of the West of England that will make Bloodhound SSC possible.”
The Bloodhound Project was launched at the Science Museum in London in October 2008. Engineers from UWE have already produced a scale model for Bloodhound SSC, the car that aims not just to break the current land speed record but to achieve an astounding land speed of 1000 mph. The Bloodhound Design team is using the specialist facilities at UWE to help realise the formative stages of the project.
UWE is a founder partner of the Bloodhound Project led by Richard Noble, a previous world land speed record holder. Product Design Senior Lecturer David Henshall said, “The challenge for the students was to consider the performance and ergonomics of the driver's position for a unique event that will take the driver across ten miles in 85 seconds.
“The test rig means that fine adjustments to the position and relationship of all components can be measured and fed into a computer, ensuring the cockpit functions as it should do at such high speeds.”
Twenty students designed and built the cockpit test rig as part of their design studio class during a five week project. The students formed teams of five and each team was allocated a particular part of the rig to work on - steering, controls, seating and pedals.
Product Design Senior Lecturer Drew Batchelor said, “The students worked in conjunction with the Bloodhound team and they have done an exceptional job. After an initial briefing from John Piper (JCB Dieselmax Chief Designer), Andy Green and the Bloodhound design team, the student groups then developed concepts in the product design studios. Drawing on ergonomic data and refining their ideas through prototypes, the various individual elements were then assembled to create the test rig unveiled today. Ensuring that all these components worked together to create a cockpit environment that would function safely at 1000 mph was the key challenge for the group."
Student Hywel Vaughan said, “It isn't often that you can go home at the end of the day and say that you have worked on a land speed record attempt vehicle. Everything had to be spot on. Andy Green (the driver)'s eye line needed to be dead on the 4 degree mark. Any lower and he wouldn't be able to see over the front of the car, any higher and it could interfere with the aerodynamics. It was an exciting challenge to build a rig that could deliver that level of accuracy.”
Driver of the 1,000mph car, Andy Green OBE, said: "There isn't a book to build a car like this and the students can't just look at their dad's car for guidance. The only requirement is to have four wheels. To be faced with a blank sheet of paper is quite frightening. That said, the students at UWE have done incredibly well and its the support of universities such as The University of the West of England that will make Bloodhound SSC possible.”
The Bloodhound Project was launched at the Science Museum in London in October 2008. Engineers from UWE have already produced a scale model for Bloodhound SSC, the car that aims not just to break the current land speed record but to achieve an astounding land speed of 1000 mph. The Bloodhound Design team is using the specialist facilities at UWE to help realise the formative stages of the project.
Making Plutonium Unsuitable for use in Nuclear Arms
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev engineers have developed a technique to "denature" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms. By adding Americium (Am 241), a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors and industrial gauges, plutonium can only be used for peaceful purposes.
This technique could help "de-claw" more than a dozen countries developing nuclear reactors if the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Japan agree to add the denaturing additive into all plutonium. An article on the technique and findings will appear next month in the Science and Global Security journal.
"When you purchase a nuclear reactor from one of the five countries, it also provides the nuclear fuel for the reactor," explains Prof. Yigal Ronen, of BGU's Department of Nuclear Engineering, who headed the project. "Thus, if the five agree to insert the additive into fuel for countries now developing nuclear power -- such as Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen -- they will have to use it for peaceful purposes rather than warfare."
Ronen originally worked on Neptonium 237 for the purpose denaturing plutonium, but switched to Americium, which is meant for pressurized water reactors (PWRs), such as the one being built in Iran.
"Countries that purchase nuclear reactors usually give the spent fuel back to the producer," explains Ronen. "They wouldn't be able to get new plutonium for weapons if it is denatured, but countries that make nuclear fuel could decide not to denature it for themselves."
Nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors has two isotopes of uranium. One is fissionable, while the other is not. The unfissionable component undergoes a number of nuclear reactions, turning some of it into plutonium. The plutonium also includes fissionable and unfissionable components. The amount of fissionable components created in nuclear reactors is enough to be used as nuclear weapons.
This technique could help "de-claw" more than a dozen countries developing nuclear reactors if the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Japan agree to add the denaturing additive into all plutonium. An article on the technique and findings will appear next month in the Science and Global Security journal.
"When you purchase a nuclear reactor from one of the five countries, it also provides the nuclear fuel for the reactor," explains Prof. Yigal Ronen, of BGU's Department of Nuclear Engineering, who headed the project. "Thus, if the five agree to insert the additive into fuel for countries now developing nuclear power -- such as Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen -- they will have to use it for peaceful purposes rather than warfare."
Ronen originally worked on Neptonium 237 for the purpose denaturing plutonium, but switched to Americium, which is meant for pressurized water reactors (PWRs), such as the one being built in Iran.
"Countries that purchase nuclear reactors usually give the spent fuel back to the producer," explains Ronen. "They wouldn't be able to get new plutonium for weapons if it is denatured, but countries that make nuclear fuel could decide not to denature it for themselves."
Nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors has two isotopes of uranium. One is fissionable, while the other is not. The unfissionable component undergoes a number of nuclear reactions, turning some of it into plutonium. The plutonium also includes fissionable and unfissionable components. The amount of fissionable components created in nuclear reactors is enough to be used as nuclear weapons.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hares are being Affected by Climate Change
University of Montana researcher Scott Mills and his students have noticed an exceptional number of white snowshoe hares on brown earth. He contends that climate change and the color mismatch are causing much more hare mortality.
On an unseasonably warm May afternoon, University of Montana wildlife biology Professor Scott Mills treks into the shadowy forests above the Seeley-Swan Valley in pursuit of his quarry. He skirts the rivulets of water melting from snow patches. In one hand he holds an antenna and in the other a receiver that’s picking up signals from a radio-collared snowshoe hare. The beeps increase in volume as he draws nearer. Mills picks his way over downed branches, steps out from behind a western larch and spots the white hare crouched on the bare brown earth.
“That’s just an embarrassing moment for a snowshoe hare to think that it’s invisible when it’s not,” said Mills with a grin, quickly adding that seeing such mismatched colors is becoming all too common and disturbing.
For the past decade, Mills has directed teams of biologists and students to investigate snowshoe hares on more than 35 study sites in Montana, Wyoming and Washington, including just outside UM’s back door near Seeley Lake. His findings have led to improved forest thinning practices that maintain patches of dense trees for hares. He’s delved into population dynamics and genetics of hares in their southern range. His research has turned directly to lynx, too, as a key predator of snowshoe hares and a threatened species.
Increasingly Mills and his students have noted an exceptional number of white hares on brown earth. Radio telemetry data revealed spring and fall to be the most deadly seasons for hares and a bonanza for predators.
That leads Mills to the “sexiest part” of snowshoe hare research – how they respond to climate change. While a warming planet affects all wildlife, a cute white hare has the makings of the next version of the polar bear as poster animal for global warming.
Will hares continue to shift coat colors on cue regardless of the presence or absence of snow? Will this drive them to extinction? Or will they be able to adjust their seasonal pattern in time to fit new conditions?
“Climate trends for mountainous areas clearly show that while snow levels may vary from year to year, the number of days with snow on the ground is decreasing,” Mills said.
Snowshoe hares evolved with plentiful winter snow in the boreal forests that form a swath across Alaska and Canada and dip down into the lower 48 states. In winter, they grow long white guard hairs to match the snow. In summer, they shed white for mostly rusty brown coats to blend with trees and soil. They depend on their cryptic coloration to hide from predators that include lynx, coyotes, foxes, wolves, pine martens and birds of prey. A hare that’s the wrong color stands out like the emperor in his new clothes.
The signal for a hare to shift coat color comes from the pineal gland in the brain that senses changes in daylight length. Shortening days of autumn trigger the coat color change from brown to white. (People also have pineal glands that produce melatonin, the hormone that affects our waking and sleeping patterns and responses to seasonal day lengths.)
Like most subjects in science, the deeper you delve, the more complexities you find. Mills points out that in the Cascades, some snowshoe hares stay a mottled brown and white year-round. In the Olympic Mountains of Washington, snowshoe hares never turn white. Does this suggest some ability to evolve in response to temperature changes? If so, how quickly?
To find out, Mills will add an intensive genetic component to his fieldwork, teaming with the University of Porto in Portugal, where scientists are sequencing the rabbit genome. Together they will analyze the genetic drivers of coat color change. Mills will start with his core research areas and then expand his studies to compare coat color genetics as well as synchrony of hare cycles in southern versus northern ranges.
Mills isn’t starting from scratch. He and his team have collected genetic samples from thousands of hares and several generations for the past eight years. On a typical field day, they rise before dawn to check the 80 “have-a-heart” live traps that they’ve baited with alfalfa and apple. The traps are placed in prime snowshoe habitat such as moist forests of larch, lodgepole and Douglas fir with dense brush and overhanging branches.
Finding a hare in a trap calls for prompt action. Mills describes the process that has become routine. First, you put a pillowcase over the entrance to the trap, so the hare will run in. You keep the hare in the pillowcase while you weigh it, add an ear tag and take a tiny plug of tissue from the ear. That tissue contains DNA and is placed in a special vial. You also check the sex and assess the hare’s general health. You might add a radio collar as well, depending on the project. The whole procedure takes a matter of minutes.
Snowshoe hares seemed like a natural choice for study soon after Mills arrived at UM from the University of Idaho in 1995. They’re a local species with excellent opportunities for delving into their ecology and introducing students and the public alike to fieldwork. Hares also are known for a classic predator-prey relationship with the lynx. The two species are so closely associated that they even share a key attribute for winter living – thick furry hind feet for bounding atop snow.
Across Canada, snowshoe hares follow a synchronized population cycle of 10-year highs and lows. Hare numbers in the Yukon can peak at 200 to 300 per square kilometer and then drop to about seven. Lynx follow a cycle that’s just slightly behind the hares. When lynx numbers are down, hares start to go up. The more hares, the better the lynx do until finally the lynx drive the hare populations down again. Mills’ work has proven that those cycles are dampened in the southern range because hares don’t have the same vast, dense boreal forest, thus hares never reach the high peak counts. As their numbers rise, they disperse into habitat openings, where they become easy dinners for waiting predators. In Montana and other parts of the southern range, forests tend to be patchier naturally, with added challenges for hares from logging and thinning.
Today, as a result of Mills’ studies comparing survival rates in experimentally thinned forests, Plum Creek Timber Co. now leaves patches of unthinned trees to benefit hares, and in turn lynx.
His research has translated directly into useful management, a result that Mills always aims for and advocates in his widely used 2006 textbook, “Conservation of Wildlife Populations, Demography, Genetics, and Management.”
Until now, the lynx-hare relationship has proved Mills’ most high-profile research. After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lynx as a threatened species in 2000, his phone rang with calls from the National Park Service and timber companies alike on how to manage forests for lynx health. Mills’ subsequent studies led to findings that lynx are highly mobile in their southern range. One cat might travel 1,000 km (620 miles) in a season.
“Conserving where lynx are now is important, but it’s also important to conserve the places in between because lynx may move into those places as well,” Mills said.
Taking the next leap to examine snowshoe hare response to climate change is both a natural progression and an exciting new phase in his long-term research.
“Wildlife will either move, adapt or die in response to climate change,” explains Mills. “The study becomes important because we need to know how much natural selection will help animals deal with climate change that is happening at a very fast rate.”
That knowledge in turn will help managers focus their efforts to save species through such actions as conserving movement corridors from south to north.
“Hares are important because they are prey for almost everything in the forest that eats meat,” Mills said. “Without hares, the ecosystem unravels.”
On an unseasonably warm May afternoon, University of Montana wildlife biology Professor Scott Mills treks into the shadowy forests above the Seeley-Swan Valley in pursuit of his quarry. He skirts the rivulets of water melting from snow patches. In one hand he holds an antenna and in the other a receiver that’s picking up signals from a radio-collared snowshoe hare. The beeps increase in volume as he draws nearer. Mills picks his way over downed branches, steps out from behind a western larch and spots the white hare crouched on the bare brown earth.
“That’s just an embarrassing moment for a snowshoe hare to think that it’s invisible when it’s not,” said Mills with a grin, quickly adding that seeing such mismatched colors is becoming all too common and disturbing.
For the past decade, Mills has directed teams of biologists and students to investigate snowshoe hares on more than 35 study sites in Montana, Wyoming and Washington, including just outside UM’s back door near Seeley Lake. His findings have led to improved forest thinning practices that maintain patches of dense trees for hares. He’s delved into population dynamics and genetics of hares in their southern range. His research has turned directly to lynx, too, as a key predator of snowshoe hares and a threatened species.
Increasingly Mills and his students have noted an exceptional number of white hares on brown earth. Radio telemetry data revealed spring and fall to be the most deadly seasons for hares and a bonanza for predators.
That leads Mills to the “sexiest part” of snowshoe hare research – how they respond to climate change. While a warming planet affects all wildlife, a cute white hare has the makings of the next version of the polar bear as poster animal for global warming.
Will hares continue to shift coat colors on cue regardless of the presence or absence of snow? Will this drive them to extinction? Or will they be able to adjust their seasonal pattern in time to fit new conditions?
“Climate trends for mountainous areas clearly show that while snow levels may vary from year to year, the number of days with snow on the ground is decreasing,” Mills said.
Snowshoe hares evolved with plentiful winter snow in the boreal forests that form a swath across Alaska and Canada and dip down into the lower 48 states. In winter, they grow long white guard hairs to match the snow. In summer, they shed white for mostly rusty brown coats to blend with trees and soil. They depend on their cryptic coloration to hide from predators that include lynx, coyotes, foxes, wolves, pine martens and birds of prey. A hare that’s the wrong color stands out like the emperor in his new clothes.
The signal for a hare to shift coat color comes from the pineal gland in the brain that senses changes in daylight length. Shortening days of autumn trigger the coat color change from brown to white. (People also have pineal glands that produce melatonin, the hormone that affects our waking and sleeping patterns and responses to seasonal day lengths.)
Like most subjects in science, the deeper you delve, the more complexities you find. Mills points out that in the Cascades, some snowshoe hares stay a mottled brown and white year-round. In the Olympic Mountains of Washington, snowshoe hares never turn white. Does this suggest some ability to evolve in response to temperature changes? If so, how quickly?
To find out, Mills will add an intensive genetic component to his fieldwork, teaming with the University of Porto in Portugal, where scientists are sequencing the rabbit genome. Together they will analyze the genetic drivers of coat color change. Mills will start with his core research areas and then expand his studies to compare coat color genetics as well as synchrony of hare cycles in southern versus northern ranges.
Mills isn’t starting from scratch. He and his team have collected genetic samples from thousands of hares and several generations for the past eight years. On a typical field day, they rise before dawn to check the 80 “have-a-heart” live traps that they’ve baited with alfalfa and apple. The traps are placed in prime snowshoe habitat such as moist forests of larch, lodgepole and Douglas fir with dense brush and overhanging branches.
Finding a hare in a trap calls for prompt action. Mills describes the process that has become routine. First, you put a pillowcase over the entrance to the trap, so the hare will run in. You keep the hare in the pillowcase while you weigh it, add an ear tag and take a tiny plug of tissue from the ear. That tissue contains DNA and is placed in a special vial. You also check the sex and assess the hare’s general health. You might add a radio collar as well, depending on the project. The whole procedure takes a matter of minutes.
Snowshoe hares seemed like a natural choice for study soon after Mills arrived at UM from the University of Idaho in 1995. They’re a local species with excellent opportunities for delving into their ecology and introducing students and the public alike to fieldwork. Hares also are known for a classic predator-prey relationship with the lynx. The two species are so closely associated that they even share a key attribute for winter living – thick furry hind feet for bounding atop snow.
Across Canada, snowshoe hares follow a synchronized population cycle of 10-year highs and lows. Hare numbers in the Yukon can peak at 200 to 300 per square kilometer and then drop to about seven. Lynx follow a cycle that’s just slightly behind the hares. When lynx numbers are down, hares start to go up. The more hares, the better the lynx do until finally the lynx drive the hare populations down again. Mills’ work has proven that those cycles are dampened in the southern range because hares don’t have the same vast, dense boreal forest, thus hares never reach the high peak counts. As their numbers rise, they disperse into habitat openings, where they become easy dinners for waiting predators. In Montana and other parts of the southern range, forests tend to be patchier naturally, with added challenges for hares from logging and thinning.
Today, as a result of Mills’ studies comparing survival rates in experimentally thinned forests, Plum Creek Timber Co. now leaves patches of unthinned trees to benefit hares, and in turn lynx.
His research has translated directly into useful management, a result that Mills always aims for and advocates in his widely used 2006 textbook, “Conservation of Wildlife Populations, Demography, Genetics, and Management.”
Until now, the lynx-hare relationship has proved Mills’ most high-profile research. After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lynx as a threatened species in 2000, his phone rang with calls from the National Park Service and timber companies alike on how to manage forests for lynx health. Mills’ subsequent studies led to findings that lynx are highly mobile in their southern range. One cat might travel 1,000 km (620 miles) in a season.
“Conserving where lynx are now is important, but it’s also important to conserve the places in between because lynx may move into those places as well,” Mills said.
Taking the next leap to examine snowshoe hare response to climate change is both a natural progression and an exciting new phase in his long-term research.
“Wildlife will either move, adapt or die in response to climate change,” explains Mills. “The study becomes important because we need to know how much natural selection will help animals deal with climate change that is happening at a very fast rate.”
That knowledge in turn will help managers focus their efforts to save species through such actions as conserving movement corridors from south to north.
“Hares are important because they are prey for almost everything in the forest that eats meat,” Mills said. “Without hares, the ecosystem unravels.”
Friday, March 6, 2009
Suppression of New Ideas & Innovations
Human history is riddled with examples of innovations and research that had been suppressed and derogated by the leading science community and the accepted scientific conventions of the time. Throughout human history, many innovators became the victims of the insults of the skeptical scientific, governmental and corporate power elites.
Many innovators, scientists, and scholars know that disagreeing with the dominant view is risky, especially when that view is backed by powerful interest groups. When someone introduces a new innovation, presents an unconventional scientific view, or comes out with a new way of doing things that threatens a powerful interest group, typically a government, industry or professional body, representatives of that group attack the innovator's ideas and the innovator personally. Such attacks are carried out by censoring writing, blocking publications, withdrawing or denying grants, taking legal actions, and spreading false information or rumors.
What are the effects of suppression of new ideas, intellectual dissent, unconventional, or unpopular scientific views? Suppression is not only a denial of the open debate that is the foundation of a free society, it also creates artificial barriers and in effect retard innovation and creativity. Moreover, it has a chilling effect that breeds external censorship as well as self-censorship. If we can learn anything from the history of science, it is the dissidents and the unconventional thinkers who have spurred science on.
The following quotes and facts illustrate the initial hostile and trivializing attitude towards new ideas, scientific inquiries, and revolutionary innovations.
“I watched his countenance closely, to see if he was not deranged... and I was assured by other Senators after we left the room that they had no confidence in it." --Reaction of Senator Smith of Indiana after Samuel Mores demonstrated his telegraph before member of Congress in 1842.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs’ discovery of the metabolic cycle that would eventually bear his name was rejected from the journal Nature.
When Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar presented his ideas at the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1935, most famous astronomer at that time, Arthur Eddington, ridiculed his ideas. It took decades before the Chandrasekhar Limit was accepted by all astrophysicists and eventually his idea became the foundation for the theory of black holes. Forty years later, Chandrasekhar was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics.
Galileo’s ideas about the universe were first dismissed as being impossible. The priests and aristocrats feared the worldview that his ideas were beginning to force upon people. Galileo was placed under house arrest.
Nobel prize-winning biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi never got funded for his work on the relevance of quantum physics to living organisms.
As documented by Dr. Brian Martin of University of Wollongong, in his books and articles, many scientists pursuing research critical of pesticides or proposing alternatives to pesticides have come under attack and have been threatened with dismissal and in some cases had been dismissed. Government scientists critical of nuclear power have lost their staff and have been transferred as a form of harassment.
When Nobel laureate Hans Alfven came up with the idea of parallel electric fields he was ridiculed for his work.
When Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius proposed his idea that electrolytes are full of charged atoms, it was considered a crazy notion.
“Mr. Bell, after careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities." -- J. P. Morgan's comments on behalf of the officials and engineers of Western Union after a demonstration of the telephone.
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876.
Luigi Galvani's experiments were ridiculed because they countered established views. He was called the "frogs' dance instructor." His innovative experiments eventually became the basis for the biological study of neurophysiology.
When Scanning-tunneling microscope was invented in 1982, it was met by hostility and ridicule from the specialists in the microscopy field. In 1986, the inventors won the Nobel prize.
George Ohm's initial publication was met with ridicule and dismissal and it was called "a tissue of naked fantasy." Ten years later, scientists recognized its great importance.
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
Stanford Ovshinsky's invention of glasslike semiconductors was attacked by physicists and ignored for more than a decade. Finally he got funding from the Japanese for his work. Consequently, the new science of amorphous semiconductor physics was born.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
When Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen first warned that chemicals called cholorofluorocarbons or CFCs, were destroying the ozone layer they were ridiculed for their work. In 1995, Rowland, Molina and Crutzen, won a Nobel Prize.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man." --G. B. Shaw.
In 1908 Billy Durant, in trying to raise money to create an automobile trust, boasted to J.P. Morgan & Co. "that the time would come when half a million automobiles a year will be running on the roads of this country." This annoyed Morgan partner George W. Perkins who said "If that fellow has any sense, he'll keep those observations to himself." Unable to raise capital in Wall Street, Durant went home and put together something called General Motors.
When Warren and his team introduced a new facet to MRI theory, his colleagues at Princeton told him that his insane ideas were endangering his career. They held a mean-spirited bogus presentation mocking his work. After seven years, Warren was vindicated. His discoveries are leading to the development of new MRI techniques.
During 1903 to 1908, Wrights' claims about their airplane invention were not believed. Most American scientists discredited the Wrights and proclaimed that their mechanism was a hoax.
The inventors of the turbine ship engine, the electric ships telegraph, and the steel ship hull were initially met with disbelief and derision for their work.
When Thomas Edison became successful with a light bulb filament he invited members of the scientific community to observe his demonstration. Although many from the general public went to witness the lamp, the noted scientists refused to attend. Sir William Siemens, England's most distinguished engineer said "Such startling announcements as these should be deprecated as being unworthy of science and mischievous to its true progress." Professor Du Moncel said "The Sorcerer of Menlo Park appears not to be acquainted with the subtleties of the electrical sciences. Mr. Edison takes us backwards."
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology, 1872.
"Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre
Many innovators, scientists, and scholars know that disagreeing with the dominant view is risky, especially when that view is backed by powerful interest groups. When someone introduces a new innovation, presents an unconventional scientific view, or comes out with a new way of doing things that threatens a powerful interest group, typically a government, industry or professional body, representatives of that group attack the innovator's ideas and the innovator personally. Such attacks are carried out by censoring writing, blocking publications, withdrawing or denying grants, taking legal actions, and spreading false information or rumors.
What are the effects of suppression of new ideas, intellectual dissent, unconventional, or unpopular scientific views? Suppression is not only a denial of the open debate that is the foundation of a free society, it also creates artificial barriers and in effect retard innovation and creativity. Moreover, it has a chilling effect that breeds external censorship as well as self-censorship. If we can learn anything from the history of science, it is the dissidents and the unconventional thinkers who have spurred science on.
The following quotes and facts illustrate the initial hostile and trivializing attitude towards new ideas, scientific inquiries, and revolutionary innovations.
“I watched his countenance closely, to see if he was not deranged... and I was assured by other Senators after we left the room that they had no confidence in it." --Reaction of Senator Smith of Indiana after Samuel Mores demonstrated his telegraph before member of Congress in 1842.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs’ discovery of the metabolic cycle that would eventually bear his name was rejected from the journal Nature.
When Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar presented his ideas at the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1935, most famous astronomer at that time, Arthur Eddington, ridiculed his ideas. It took decades before the Chandrasekhar Limit was accepted by all astrophysicists and eventually his idea became the foundation for the theory of black holes. Forty years later, Chandrasekhar was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics.
Galileo’s ideas about the universe were first dismissed as being impossible. The priests and aristocrats feared the worldview that his ideas were beginning to force upon people. Galileo was placed under house arrest.
Nobel prize-winning biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi never got funded for his work on the relevance of quantum physics to living organisms.
As documented by Dr. Brian Martin of University of Wollongong, in his books and articles, many scientists pursuing research critical of pesticides or proposing alternatives to pesticides have come under attack and have been threatened with dismissal and in some cases had been dismissed. Government scientists critical of nuclear power have lost their staff and have been transferred as a form of harassment.
When Nobel laureate Hans Alfven came up with the idea of parallel electric fields he was ridiculed for his work.
When Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius proposed his idea that electrolytes are full of charged atoms, it was considered a crazy notion.
“Mr. Bell, after careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities." -- J. P. Morgan's comments on behalf of the officials and engineers of Western Union after a demonstration of the telephone.
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876.
Luigi Galvani's experiments were ridiculed because they countered established views. He was called the "frogs' dance instructor." His innovative experiments eventually became the basis for the biological study of neurophysiology.
When Scanning-tunneling microscope was invented in 1982, it was met by hostility and ridicule from the specialists in the microscopy field. In 1986, the inventors won the Nobel prize.
George Ohm's initial publication was met with ridicule and dismissal and it was called "a tissue of naked fantasy." Ten years later, scientists recognized its great importance.
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
Stanford Ovshinsky's invention of glasslike semiconductors was attacked by physicists and ignored for more than a decade. Finally he got funding from the Japanese for his work. Consequently, the new science of amorphous semiconductor physics was born.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
When Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen first warned that chemicals called cholorofluorocarbons or CFCs, were destroying the ozone layer they were ridiculed for their work. In 1995, Rowland, Molina and Crutzen, won a Nobel Prize.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man." --G. B. Shaw.
In 1908 Billy Durant, in trying to raise money to create an automobile trust, boasted to J.P. Morgan & Co. "that the time would come when half a million automobiles a year will be running on the roads of this country." This annoyed Morgan partner George W. Perkins who said "If that fellow has any sense, he'll keep those observations to himself." Unable to raise capital in Wall Street, Durant went home and put together something called General Motors.
When Warren and his team introduced a new facet to MRI theory, his colleagues at Princeton told him that his insane ideas were endangering his career. They held a mean-spirited bogus presentation mocking his work. After seven years, Warren was vindicated. His discoveries are leading to the development of new MRI techniques.
During 1903 to 1908, Wrights' claims about their airplane invention were not believed. Most American scientists discredited the Wrights and proclaimed that their mechanism was a hoax.
The inventors of the turbine ship engine, the electric ships telegraph, and the steel ship hull were initially met with disbelief and derision for their work.
When Thomas Edison became successful with a light bulb filament he invited members of the scientific community to observe his demonstration. Although many from the general public went to witness the lamp, the noted scientists refused to attend. Sir William Siemens, England's most distinguished engineer said "Such startling announcements as these should be deprecated as being unworthy of science and mischievous to its true progress." Professor Du Moncel said "The Sorcerer of Menlo Park appears not to be acquainted with the subtleties of the electrical sciences. Mr. Edison takes us backwards."
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology, 1872.
"Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wonderful Quotations on Innovation
"If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it." -- Albert Einstein.
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."--Arthur Schopenhauer.
“At their first appearance innovators have always been derided as fools and mad men.” -- Aldous Huxley.
"Every great advance in science has been issued from a new audacity of the imagination" --John Dewey.
"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next" --John Stuart Mill.
"Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created" --Albert Einstein.
"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess"--Isaac Newton.
"That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time" --John Stuart Mill.
"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."--Paul Johnson
"Concepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as "conceptual necessities", etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors." --Albert Einstein
"All great truths began as blasphemies." --George Bernard Shaw
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."--Arthur Schopenhauer.
“At their first appearance innovators have always been derided as fools and mad men.” -- Aldous Huxley.
"Every great advance in science has been issued from a new audacity of the imagination" --John Dewey.
"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next" --John Stuart Mill.
"Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created" --Albert Einstein.
"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess"--Isaac Newton.
"That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time" --John Stuart Mill.
"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."--Paul Johnson
"Concepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as "conceptual necessities", etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors." --Albert Einstein
"All great truths began as blasphemies." --George Bernard Shaw
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Amazing Facts About Success & Failure
"Our greatest glory is not in ever falling but in rising every time we fall." --Confucius
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 and did not read until he was 7. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.
Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive."
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
French acting legend Jeanne Moreau was told by a casting director that her "head was too crooked and she was not beautiful enough to make it in films." She said to herself, "I guess I will have to make it my own way." After making nearly 100 films her own way, in 1997 she received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sidney Poitier was told by a casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" It was at that moment, recalls Poitier, that he decided to devote his life to acting.
Beethoven's teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." We all know that he wrote some of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. This did not stop him from completing over 800 paintings.
An art dealer refused Picasso shelter when he asked if he could bring in his paintings from out of the rain. Stravinsky was run out of town by an enraged audience and critics after the first performance of the Rite of Spring.
A young reporter asked Pablo Casals when he was 95 "Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived, why do you still practice six hours a day?" Mr. Casals answered, "Because I think I'm making progress."
Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. He was described as both "unable and unwilling to learn."
Emily Dickinson had only seven poems published in her lifetime.
English crime novelist John Creasey had 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books.
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost 16 years after losing his eyesight.
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 and did not read until he was 7. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.
Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive."
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
French acting legend Jeanne Moreau was told by a casting director that her "head was too crooked and she was not beautiful enough to make it in films." She said to herself, "I guess I will have to make it my own way." After making nearly 100 films her own way, in 1997 she received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sidney Poitier was told by a casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" It was at that moment, recalls Poitier, that he decided to devote his life to acting.
Beethoven's teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." We all know that he wrote some of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. This did not stop him from completing over 800 paintings.
An art dealer refused Picasso shelter when he asked if he could bring in his paintings from out of the rain. Stravinsky was run out of town by an enraged audience and critics after the first performance of the Rite of Spring.
A young reporter asked Pablo Casals when he was 95 "Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived, why do you still practice six hours a day?" Mr. Casals answered, "Because I think I'm making progress."
Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. He was described as both "unable and unwilling to learn."
Emily Dickinson had only seven poems published in her lifetime.
English crime novelist John Creasey had 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books.
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost 16 years after losing his eyesight.
Engineers Tune A Nanoscale Grating Structure To Trap And Release A Variety Of Light Waves
Light waves transmit data with much greater speed than do electrical signals, says Qiaoqiang Gan, a Ph.D. candidate at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. If they are guided with sufficient precision inside the tiny circuits of an electronic chip, they can bring about applications in spectroscopy, sensing and medical imaging. And they can hasten the advent of faster all-optical telecommunication networks, in which light signals transmit and route data without needing to be converted to electrical signals and back.
To enable light waves to store and transmit data with optimal efficiency, engineers must learn to slow or stop light waves across the various regions of the spectrum.
Gan and his adviser, Filbert J. Bartoli, department chair of electrical and computer engineering, made a major contribution to this effort last year when they developed a graded metal grating structure capable of slowing or stopping terahertz (THz) light waves. The achievement, said Bartoli, "opened a door to the control of light waves on a chip" that could help reduce the size of optical structures, enabling them to be integrated at the nanoscale with electronic devices.
Gan and Bartoli reported their results in June in Physical Review Letters (PRL). Their article was coauthored by Yujie J. Ding, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Zhan Fu, a Ph.D. candidate advised by Ding. The researchers are affiliated with Lehigh's Center for Optical Technologies.
Recently, Bartoli's team recorded a second major advance. Working again with Ding, they demonstrated that their grating structure could be scaled down in size to a dimension compatible with light waves in the telecommunications portion of the spectrum.
THz waves measure several hundred microns in length (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter) and are suitable for security applications. Wavelengths in the telecommunications range of the spectrum measure 1330 to 1550 nanometers (1 nm is one-billionth of a meter) and are suitable for optical communications.
The three researchers reported their progress in a second PRL article, titled "Rainbow Trapping and Releasing at Telecommunication Wavelengths." The article was published in the journal's Feb. 6 issue.
In the current article, the researchers also address a phenomenon called loss in metals, in which the metal materials of a chip, instead of simply propagating light, also absorb it and dissipate it as heat. Metal loss occurs more strongly with telecommunications light waves than with THz light waves.
To use trapped light waves for telecommunications, says Gan, it is necessary to release them from the grating structure. Gan and his colleagues accomplished this by covering the structure with dielectric materials.
"By tuning the temperature of the dielectric materials, we were able to change the optical properties of the metal grating structure," he said. "This in turn enabled the trapped light waves to be released."
The Lehigh researchers describe their structure as a "metallic grating structure with graded depths, whose dispersion curves and cutoff frequencies are different at different locations." In appearance, the grating resembles the pipes of a pipe organ arranged side by side and decreasing gradually in length from one end of the assembly to the other. The degree of grade in the grating can be tuned by altering the temperature and modifying the physical features on the surface of the structure.
The structure arrests the progress of light waves at multiple locations on the surface and at different frequencies. Previous researchers, Gan says, had been able "to slow down one single wavelength within a narrow bandwidth, but not many wavelengths over a wide spectrum."
Most of the initial work on this project has been theoretical, using mathematical equations and computer simulation. Bartoli's group has now moved to the next stage, which includes fabricating and characterizing the structures.
"It will be challenging," Gan says, "to achieve a grade of grating depths which range from very shallow to as much as 50 nanometers on a 200-nm substrate. To do this, we are using the focused ion beam milling facilities in the materials science and engineering department. We have already fabricated many structures and will now try to characterize the graded gratings with near-field scanning optical microscopy in Prof. Volkmar Dierolf's lab in the physics department.
"We are pursuing promising applications based on these structures. These include biosensing and bioimaging."
An article in the Feb. 14 issue of the British journal New Scientist said the results obtained by Bartoli's team "suggest that one day we might be able to slow down light long enough to store it as a 'rainbow' or colors – an advance that would revolutionize computing and telecommunication networks."
Light is stored for a few pico-seconds in the grating structure, the New Scientist article notes. But this, according to physicist Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, "is quite significant for many applications."
To enable light waves to store and transmit data with optimal efficiency, engineers must learn to slow or stop light waves across the various regions of the spectrum.
Gan and his adviser, Filbert J. Bartoli, department chair of electrical and computer engineering, made a major contribution to this effort last year when they developed a graded metal grating structure capable of slowing or stopping terahertz (THz) light waves. The achievement, said Bartoli, "opened a door to the control of light waves on a chip" that could help reduce the size of optical structures, enabling them to be integrated at the nanoscale with electronic devices.
Gan and Bartoli reported their results in June in Physical Review Letters (PRL). Their article was coauthored by Yujie J. Ding, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Zhan Fu, a Ph.D. candidate advised by Ding. The researchers are affiliated with Lehigh's Center for Optical Technologies.
Recently, Bartoli's team recorded a second major advance. Working again with Ding, they demonstrated that their grating structure could be scaled down in size to a dimension compatible with light waves in the telecommunications portion of the spectrum.
THz waves measure several hundred microns in length (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter) and are suitable for security applications. Wavelengths in the telecommunications range of the spectrum measure 1330 to 1550 nanometers (1 nm is one-billionth of a meter) and are suitable for optical communications.
The three researchers reported their progress in a second PRL article, titled "Rainbow Trapping and Releasing at Telecommunication Wavelengths." The article was published in the journal's Feb. 6 issue.
In the current article, the researchers also address a phenomenon called loss in metals, in which the metal materials of a chip, instead of simply propagating light, also absorb it and dissipate it as heat. Metal loss occurs more strongly with telecommunications light waves than with THz light waves.
To use trapped light waves for telecommunications, says Gan, it is necessary to release them from the grating structure. Gan and his colleagues accomplished this by covering the structure with dielectric materials.
"By tuning the temperature of the dielectric materials, we were able to change the optical properties of the metal grating structure," he said. "This in turn enabled the trapped light waves to be released."
The Lehigh researchers describe their structure as a "metallic grating structure with graded depths, whose dispersion curves and cutoff frequencies are different at different locations." In appearance, the grating resembles the pipes of a pipe organ arranged side by side and decreasing gradually in length from one end of the assembly to the other. The degree of grade in the grating can be tuned by altering the temperature and modifying the physical features on the surface of the structure.
The structure arrests the progress of light waves at multiple locations on the surface and at different frequencies. Previous researchers, Gan says, had been able "to slow down one single wavelength within a narrow bandwidth, but not many wavelengths over a wide spectrum."
Most of the initial work on this project has been theoretical, using mathematical equations and computer simulation. Bartoli's group has now moved to the next stage, which includes fabricating and characterizing the structures.
"It will be challenging," Gan says, "to achieve a grade of grating depths which range from very shallow to as much as 50 nanometers on a 200-nm substrate. To do this, we are using the focused ion beam milling facilities in the materials science and engineering department. We have already fabricated many structures and will now try to characterize the graded gratings with near-field scanning optical microscopy in Prof. Volkmar Dierolf's lab in the physics department.
"We are pursuing promising applications based on these structures. These include biosensing and bioimaging."
An article in the Feb. 14 issue of the British journal New Scientist said the results obtained by Bartoli's team "suggest that one day we might be able to slow down light long enough to store it as a 'rainbow' or colors – an advance that would revolutionize computing and telecommunication networks."
Light is stored for a few pico-seconds in the grating structure, the New Scientist article notes. But this, according to physicist Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, "is quite significant for many applications."
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Its Urgent to get to Iraq's oil
International companies have waited years to tap into Iraq's vast oil wealth and now Iraqi officials are working feverishly to make that happen soon.
There is growing apprehension about the cost of rebuilding the country with the price of crude, the nation's major source of revenue, nearing five year lows. Iraq must produce more oil and it is foreign oil majors that have the wherewithal to do that. Iraq recently sweetened the terms: increasing ownership percentages for foreign oil companies and making it easier to meet production targets. But the government wants production to begin quickly. The Associated Press reports that the country is now requiring any oil company that signs a contract to begin operating in the country within six months. Though low crude prices have not diminished interest in Iraqi oil, negotiations between the two sides have lingered over security concerns and the absence of a national law regulating Iraq's oil industry.
Prime Minister Al-Maliki said the government would form a committee to oversee development of the country's devastated oil industry and increase exports. He said Iraq must also work quickly to diversify its economy to cushion future spending from a drop in oil prices. But right now, the onus is on ramping up oil production, and fast. As violence has declined in Iraq, so to has the price of oil worldwide. The Iraqi government relies on oil sales for more than 90-percent of its revenue. Falling oil prices have reduced the projected 2009 budget from $79 billion to $64 billion and have forced Iraqi officials to slash rebuilding plans by 40-percent. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned any significant slowdown in reconstruction could imperil the security gains that have reduced violence in Iraq to a five-year low.
It remains to be seen how international firms will respond to Iraq's new carrot and stick approach. Iraq hopes the contracts-scheduled to be awarded in June-will boost oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day within four years. Iraq currently produces about 2.4 million barrels daily. The companies are bidding on long-term service agreements that would pay them fees depending on production levels.
There is growing apprehension about the cost of rebuilding the country with the price of crude, the nation's major source of revenue, nearing five year lows. Iraq must produce more oil and it is foreign oil majors that have the wherewithal to do that. Iraq recently sweetened the terms: increasing ownership percentages for foreign oil companies and making it easier to meet production targets. But the government wants production to begin quickly. The Associated Press reports that the country is now requiring any oil company that signs a contract to begin operating in the country within six months. Though low crude prices have not diminished interest in Iraqi oil, negotiations between the two sides have lingered over security concerns and the absence of a national law regulating Iraq's oil industry.
Prime Minister Al-Maliki said the government would form a committee to oversee development of the country's devastated oil industry and increase exports. He said Iraq must also work quickly to diversify its economy to cushion future spending from a drop in oil prices. But right now, the onus is on ramping up oil production, and fast. As violence has declined in Iraq, so to has the price of oil worldwide. The Iraqi government relies on oil sales for more than 90-percent of its revenue. Falling oil prices have reduced the projected 2009 budget from $79 billion to $64 billion and have forced Iraqi officials to slash rebuilding plans by 40-percent. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned any significant slowdown in reconstruction could imperil the security gains that have reduced violence in Iraq to a five-year low.
It remains to be seen how international firms will respond to Iraq's new carrot and stick approach. Iraq hopes the contracts-scheduled to be awarded in June-will boost oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day within four years. Iraq currently produces about 2.4 million barrels daily. The companies are bidding on long-term service agreements that would pay them fees depending on production levels.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Improved Solar Energy Performance with Plastic Solar Cells
The University of Alberta and the National Research Council's National Institute (NINT) for Nanotechnology have engineered an approach that is leading to improved performance of plastic solar cells (hybrid organic solar cells). The development of inexpensive, mass-produced plastic solar panels is a goal of intense interest for many of the world's scientists and engineers because of the high cost and shortage of the ultra-high purity silicon and other materials normally required.
Plastic solar cells are made up of layers of different materials, each with a specific function, called a sandwich structure. Jillian Buriak, a professor of chemistry at the U of A, NINT principal investigator and member of the research team, uses a simple analogy to describe the approach: "Consider a clubhouse sandwich, with many different layers. One layer absorbs the light, another helps to generate the electricity, and others help to draw the electricity out of the device. Normally, the layers don't stick well, and so the electricity ends up stuck and never gets out, leading to inefficient devices. We are working on the mayonnaise, the mustard, the butter and other 'special sauces' that bring the sandwich together, and make each of the layers work together. That makes a better sandwich, and makes a better solar cell, in our case".
After two years of research, these U of A and NINT scientists have, by only working on one part of the sandwich, seen improvements of about 30 per cent in the efficiency of the working model. Michael Brett, professor of electrical and computer engineering, NINT principal investigator and member of the research team is optimistic: "our team is so incredibly cross-disciplinary, with people from engineering, physics and chemistry backgrounds all working towards this common goal of cheap manufacturable solar cells. This collaboration is extremely productive because of the great team with such diverse backgrounds, [although] there is still so much more for us to do, which is exciting." This multidisciplinary approach, common at the National Institute for Nanotechnology, brings together the best of the NRC and the University of Alberta.
The team estimates it will be five to seven years before plastic solar panels will be mass produced but Buriak adds that when it happens solar energy will be available to everyone. She says the next generation of solar technology belongs to plastic.
"Plastic solar cell material will be made cheaply and quickly and in massive quantities by ink jet-like printers."
Plastic solar cells are made up of layers of different materials, each with a specific function, called a sandwich structure. Jillian Buriak, a professor of chemistry at the U of A, NINT principal investigator and member of the research team, uses a simple analogy to describe the approach: "Consider a clubhouse sandwich, with many different layers. One layer absorbs the light, another helps to generate the electricity, and others help to draw the electricity out of the device. Normally, the layers don't stick well, and so the electricity ends up stuck and never gets out, leading to inefficient devices. We are working on the mayonnaise, the mustard, the butter and other 'special sauces' that bring the sandwich together, and make each of the layers work together. That makes a better sandwich, and makes a better solar cell, in our case".
After two years of research, these U of A and NINT scientists have, by only working on one part of the sandwich, seen improvements of about 30 per cent in the efficiency of the working model. Michael Brett, professor of electrical and computer engineering, NINT principal investigator and member of the research team is optimistic: "our team is so incredibly cross-disciplinary, with people from engineering, physics and chemistry backgrounds all working towards this common goal of cheap manufacturable solar cells. This collaboration is extremely productive because of the great team with such diverse backgrounds, [although] there is still so much more for us to do, which is exciting." This multidisciplinary approach, common at the National Institute for Nanotechnology, brings together the best of the NRC and the University of Alberta.
The team estimates it will be five to seven years before plastic solar panels will be mass produced but Buriak adds that when it happens solar energy will be available to everyone. She says the next generation of solar technology belongs to plastic.
"Plastic solar cell material will be made cheaply and quickly and in massive quantities by ink jet-like printers."
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Your Laser Printer is Dangerous!!! Beware of It
The identity and origin of tiny, potentially hazardous particles emitted from common laser printers have been revealed by a new study at Queensland University of Technology.
Professor Lidia Morawska from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health led the study which aimed to answer questions raised by earlier findings that almost one third of popular laser printers emitted large numbers of ultrafine particles.
These tiny particles are potentially dangerous to human health because they can penetrate deep into the lungs.
Professor Morawska said the latest study found that the ultrafine particles formed from vapours which are produced when the printed image is fused to the paper.
"In the printing process, toner is melted and when it is hot, certain compounds evaporate and those vapours then nucleate or condense in the air, forming ultrafine particles," she said.
"The material is the result of the condensation of organic compounds which originate from both the paper and hot toner."
The study compared a high-emitting printer with a low-emitting printer and found that there were two ways in which printers contributed to the formation of these particles.
"The hotter the printer gets, the higher the likelihood of these particles forming, but the rate of change of the temperature also contributes," Professor Morawska said.
"The high emitting printer operated at a lower average temperature, but had rapid changes in temperature, which resulted in more condensable vapour being emitted from the printer.
"The printer with better temperature control emitted fewer particles."
Professor Morawska said this research provided information which would help consumers better understand the risks of laser printers and would help the printer industry to design low or no emission printers.
Professor Lidia Morawska from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health led the study which aimed to answer questions raised by earlier findings that almost one third of popular laser printers emitted large numbers of ultrafine particles.
These tiny particles are potentially dangerous to human health because they can penetrate deep into the lungs.
Professor Morawska said the latest study found that the ultrafine particles formed from vapours which are produced when the printed image is fused to the paper.
"In the printing process, toner is melted and when it is hot, certain compounds evaporate and those vapours then nucleate or condense in the air, forming ultrafine particles," she said.
"The material is the result of the condensation of organic compounds which originate from both the paper and hot toner."
The study compared a high-emitting printer with a low-emitting printer and found that there were two ways in which printers contributed to the formation of these particles.
"The hotter the printer gets, the higher the likelihood of these particles forming, but the rate of change of the temperature also contributes," Professor Morawska said.
"The high emitting printer operated at a lower average temperature, but had rapid changes in temperature, which resulted in more condensable vapour being emitted from the printer.
"The printer with better temperature control emitted fewer particles."
Professor Morawska said this research provided information which would help consumers better understand the risks of laser printers and would help the printer industry to design low or no emission printers.
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