Science Buzz - Science Museum of Minnesota [and Best of the Web]

SpaceShipTwo makes first in-the-air firing test flight

Edging toward space: SpaceShipTwo took a little step in getting closer to reaching space today.Courtesy Virgin GalacticThis morning high above the Mojave Desert in California, SpaceShipTwo fired its engines in air for the first time, making its first step toward putting a commercial, tourist space craft into space. As opposed to traditional ground-fired rockets, SpaceShipTwo is carried up into the upper atmosphere by a jet plane, cut loose and then fires its engines to boost it toward space. Today's test took the craft up to 45,000 feet with its partner. The blast shoot it up to 55,000 feet for about a 10 minutes. Here is a link to video of the firing. And here is a link to our previous posts about SpaceShipTwo.

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Coelacanth secrets surface from ocean of DNA data

Coelacanth: model in the SMM paleo lab. Photo by Mark Ryan.Courtesy Fancy Horse (underwater background)The genome of the coelacanth, the world's best known living fossil, has been sequenced by an international team of researchers and is revealing something scientists already suspected: that the primitive-looking fish has evolved more slowly than most other organisms. The coelacanth is related to the lungfish and several extinct Devonian fish species that are considered precursors to land dwelling tetrapods. Kerstin Lindblad-Toh is senior author of the study which appeared recently in the science journal Nature.

"We often talk about how species have changed over time, but there are still a few places on Earth where organisms don't have to change, and this is one of them," Lindblad-Toh said. "Coelacanths are likely very specialized to such a specific, non-changing, extreme environment -- it is ideally suited to the deep sea just the way it is."

Lindblad-Toh is scientific director of the Broad Institute's vertebrate genome biology group in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which did the genome research. The institute is linked to both MIT and Harvard.

The genetic map, which involved sequencing some 3 billion letters of DNA, also showed (via RNA content) that tetrapods - four-legged land dwelling animals - though related to both coelacanths and lungfish, are more closely related to lungfish and followed that line rather than that of the coelacanth. We humans also branched off that same line. The genome of a lungfish is composed of over 100 billion DNA letters, making it a much more difficult task to sequence, so for the time being, the coelacanth's DNA makes for a reasonable alternative for study.

"This is just the beginning of many analyses on what the coelacanth can teach us about the emergence of land vertebrates, including humans, and, combined with modern empirical approaches, can lend insights into the mechanisms that have contributed to major evolutionary innovations," said professor Chris Amemiya at the University of Washington, and the paper's co-author.

Fossil coelacanth: not much has changed in 350 million years.Courtesy photo by Haplochromis via Wikipedia Creative CommonsWhen Louis Agassiz named the first fossil coelacanth back in 1836, the Swiss paleontologist probably never imagined that a nearly identical descendent of the primitively constructed Devonian-aged fish would one day be found still inhabiting the world's oceans. The coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct along with the non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. None have been found in the fossil record after that time, but two extant species are known today. The first specimen Latimeria chalumnae was netted off the coast of South Africa in 1938, near the Chalumnae river and retrieved by East London Museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer who discovered what she called "the most beautiful fish I'd ever seen" in the catch of local fisherman, Henrik Goosen. Since then several more coelacanths have been caught, including the Indonesian species, Latimeria menadoensis, from the Indian Ocean.

The remarkable prehistoric throw-back, sometimes referred to as "old four legs" because of its leg-like fins, hasn't changed much in its 350 million year history. A member of the clade of lobe-finned fishes called Sarcopterygii, coelacanths retain primitive characteristics such a notochord, a hollow fluid-filled tube made of cartilage that underlies the spine over the length of its body. In all other vertebrates, the notochord is an anatomical structure that appears briefly only during the embryonic stage but not in adults. Not so with the coelacanth. It also possesses, primitive shark-like intestines, a linear heart, and tightly-woven armor-like scales (known as cosmoid) that are only found on extinct species of fish. The coelacanth's brain case contains only 1.5 percent gray matter - the other 98.5 percent of space is filled with fat. The other end of the coelacanth body begins to taper before expanding into a strange, three-lobed tail. Its most notable features are its lobed pectoral and pelvic fins that are structured with bones that look like toes, and move in an alternating tetrapod manner. An electroreceptive rostal organ located in its snout is used to detect prey, and the coelacanth is the only living animal that can unhinge a section of the its cranium to increase the gape of its mouth, enabling it to consume larger prey.

The blue or brown, white-speckled coelacanths prefer deep-water environments, and can reach six and a half feet in length and weigh upwards to 175 pounds. For some reason no living coelacanth has managed to survive more than a single day in captivity. With a dwindling population estimated at only 500-1000 individuals, the coelacanth was declared an endangered species in 1989.

SOURCE and LINKS

Broad Institute news
Coelacanth info at dinofish.com
More coelacanth info
NatGeo article
Take Nova's Coelacanth Quiz

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Watch a bee take off in ultra slow-motion

Unlike US air travelers, sequestration doesn't seem to be causing any problems for buzzing honey bees. Check out this cool Bee in ultra slow motion video from Joris Schaap on Vimeo.The ultra slow-motion clip came to my attention via EarhSky.org. Here's what the site had to say about it:

Scientists say that the secret of honeybee flight is a combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency. Wing-beat frequency normally increases as body size decreases, but as the bee’s wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.

The video was shot at 3000 frames per second (!) and is part of something called Flightartist Project, which you can take part in if you're so inclined. Check out the project site for further information (you'll need to speak Dutch or somehow translate it).

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Credit cards given most weight in credit rating determination

The CFPB says that how you use your charge cards has the most effect on managing your credit score. The conclusion was one of many in the CFPB's new study of credit reports. Article resource:

visit at this moment on https://personalmoneynetwork.com/

Always responsible use of cards

That most likely is not surprising to most people. However, it does spotlight where consumers should concentrate their efforts to be able to keep credit scores high for the next time they have to buy an automobile or want to take out a mortgage.

Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said: “Credit cards are given great weight in credit profiles -- a lesson that consumers could end up learning the hard way.”

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report, more than half of the data on the typical credit score report comes from charge card businesses.

It is simple to fall into a debt spiral when consumers use credit cards irresponsibly. When consumers go to take out a mortgage in the future, they might end up having to pay a lot more because of the black mark on their record, according to Cordray. He explained that many consumers will be getting retailer credit cards during the season to get discounts on gift purchases, which is perfectly alright as long as the card is used responsible.

Recession and credit card use

During the economic downturn, consumers have had a really hard time with credit cards. They are using charge cards for daily expenditures rather than just emergencies now. In fact, the stagnant wages, high joblessness and increased prices have made it really hard to survive without some form of credit.

The CRL said Wed that around 40 percent of low- and middle-income families routinely use plastic to meet daily needs, such as food, rent and clothing. So apparently the teaching point from the CPFB report is one that Americans would do well to take to heart.

Exploring the Credit card Act

Due to the Credit card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, many customers have been able to cut back high credit card balances during the recession. The Act has made it extremely hard to have additional high penalties and fee structures that do not make any sense. The reform has been helping many customers.

Stay informed

Less than 20 percent of customers actually get their credit report regularly, according to the CFPB. Consumers can point out errors or fraud more very easily and fix any issues before it shows up when applying for a large loan if they are keeping track of their credit. Americans are definitely not doing enough when it comes to staying informed.

Sources

Washington Post

Daily Finance

Fox Business

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Robots help track down the Boston Marathon bombers

Nabbing terrorists: Robotics experts are analyzing how automated devices played a part in apprehending the Boston Marathon bombers.Courtesy MashableLaw enforcement authorities aren't giving out specific information, but robotic experts are chiming in with their thoughts on how robots played a role in capturing the Boston Marathon bombers. Here's a pretty interesting online article theorizing the use of robots in the case. The link includes a video that shows how these robots do their jobs. While TV reports Friday night said that a robotic arm was used to pull the tarp off the boat where the second suspect was hiding, those reports, have now been called incorrect.

What do you think about using robots to handle dangerous tasks involving terrorism and crime?

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Panda tries to climb a tree....during an earthquake

I feel like there should be some whacky music or pun-filled intro a la America's Funniest Videos, but we'll let this video just stand on its own.

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Are you a weather observer?

People from all walks of life are fascinated by weather and make routine measurements. The “Cooperative Network” operated by the National Weather Service (or NWS) is a network of several thousand volunteers from across the country that routinely make and report weather observations. This Coop has operated continuously since 1890. The group includes about 9,000 weather observes who systematically measure high and low temperatures, rainfall and snow accumulation every day. These observations are archived at the National Climatic Data Center and are a large part of the historical weather record of the country.

Another group, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow networks, or CoCoRaHS, includes 15,000 volunteers who help measure and report precipitation type and amounts every day. Observations of precipitation by a large group of volunteers are critical to understanding storms as precipitation varies widely from place to place even in a single storm. Such observations are useful for assessing flooding hazards and rapid snow melting. You can join CoCoRaHS at http://www.cocorahs.org.

There are also tens of thousands of citizens that serve as NWS severe weather spotters. The NWS relies on these storm spotters, along with radars, satellites and other data to supply observations that help in NWS’ decision making process of issuing and verifying severe weather warnings. The NWS is always looking for volunteers to help get the word out about severe storms. You can find out more about this group and sign up for classes and become a trained spotter at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/?n=spotters. It is a good class to take as we approach severe weather season.

So, if you enjoy making weather observations, join one of these groups and be one of the nation's weather observers!

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Cloning for climate change: California redwoods could reforest the planet

Tall order: Scientists are cloning giant redwood trees from California in an effort to reforest lost trees and combat climate change.Courtesy VictorgrigasStart talking about giant cloning projects, and the conversation is going to quickly turn to Jurassic Park, the film that "what iffed" the cloning of dinosaurs. It was all for fun, if beyond hypothetical.

But giants of another kind, trees, are being cloned in an effort to help turn the balance of deteriorating conditions here on Earth. California's iconic, and incredibly tall, redwood trees are getting the cloning treatment. You can read the full details about the project here. And today, Earth Day 2013, the project is going global as clones of these redwoods are being planted in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Germany and the U.S.

Why clone just behemoth trees? The guys running the project surmise where better to find the strongest, hardiest genetic codes to withstand the coming climate pressures than in these huge redwoods, many which have lived for over 4,000 years.

The current crop of plantings come from the DNA of giant trees cut down about a century ago. Even though the bulk of the trees are just stumps today, those stumps are very much alive. They have live shoots emerging from the stumps, which the researchers can extract DNA from to serve as the basis for their cloning work.

The new plantings have a long way to go. They're only about 18 inches tall right now. The big challenge, the researchers say, is to find people and resources to nurture this little trees into viable, independent growers.

Redwoods are considered best suited to absorb massive volumes of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas primarily responsible for climate change.

What do you think? Is this a good application for cloning? Can these huge trees make a difference with climate change over the long haul? Should we be tinkering around with this kind of science?

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15 Earth facts for Earth Day 2013

Happy Earth Day. Most of us think we know Earth pretty well. After all, it's where we spend all of our time (unless we are astronauts!). But here are 15 fun facts about our planetary orb on this day we celebrate it. Maybe this further understanding might just make us want to take care of our planet a little bit better.

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How is everyday stuff done in space?

Ever wondered how astronauts brush their teeth in a zero gravity environment? Or rinse out a wet rag? Or even make a peanut butter and honey sandwich (with a tortilla)? Wonder no more. Canadian astronaut and ISS Commander Chris Hadfield has created several videos that show how astronauts tackle these usually mundane tasks in space. Here are three:

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The many ho-hum ways to perish when exposed to the vaccum of space

I had an interesting discussion related to the many and dramatic ways a person would perish when exposed to the vacuum of space recently. We discussed the many dramatic and horrific things that would happen. Blood boiling, eyes popping out... Turns out to be a lot less dramatic. Here is what NASA has to say about what happens to the body when exposed to the vacuum of space.

If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out for when ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory predicts -- and experiments confirm -- that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.

Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends", certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known.

You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn.

At NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center) we had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in '65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil.

So, bad things clearly happen. Just not the very dramatic bad things I, and lots of others, had previously imagined.

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Flood cam becomes snow cam

Snow job: The statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald had a healthy coating of snow today in our ongoing wintry spring.Courtesy ThorWith several of the past springs being hot flooding years, we geared up our flood cam to chronicle the rise of the Mississippi River outside the windows of SMM. But this spring's gradual melting hasn't created much in flooding conditions. It turns out, however, we now have interesting time lapse captures of the "ebb and melt" of our late snows these past three weeks. You can check it out here. That is, I guess, if you really want to look at more snow!!!

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Call for National Fossil Day art and photography submissions

Fossils and art contest: The 2013 National Fossil Day Art and Photography contest is now open for submissions.Courtesy Mark RyanDo you like fossils? Do you like to draw or take photographs? Then you should know that the 4th annual National Fossil Day Art and Photography Contest is now accepting submissions. The contest runs until next autumn (submissions must be postmarked by October 4th) when judges will select the winning entries. It's all part of the many celebrations of fossils that take place across the country on and around the official National Fossil Day on October 16, 2013. The celebration is a combined effort by the National Park Service along with several federal and state agencies, and earth science related organizations.

There are four age categories: ages 5-8, 9-13, 14-18, and for us old-timers, 19 and up. You can find all the information you need here on the official National Fossil Day contest site.

This year's contest theme is: "Your nomination for our National Fossil". Maybe you think it's should be a dinosaur, or a trilobite, or one of the famous fossil fish found in the Green River shales of the western USA? Whatever you think, get out your pencils, pens, paints, or cameras and make your case for our national fossil.

By the way, Minnesota is one of 10 states in the union lacking an official state fossil. That needs to be remedied. Do you have a favorite fossil found in Minnesota? Maybe you found one yourself at one of the fossil collecting sites around the Twin Cities. If so, let us know in the comments.

LINKS
NFD Art & Photo Contest page
National Fossil Day site
National Fossil Day Flickr page

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What would you do if you didn't have to sleep?

Sleeping? How quaint!: Why doesn't this guy just take a pill?Courtesy Stougard/Wikimedia CommonsIf you don't have a lot of time, don't go to the BBC Future site. I made this mistake at bedtime recently--it was one of those "Oh, I'll just read a story or two" moments--and finally managed to extricate myself after two hours of reading link after link of their science and tech stories, too sleepy to continue but too fascinated to quit. So it seems appropriate that one of the links that caught my attention was
this one, from BBC Future's weekly Best of the Web feature.

To be fair, the essay here isn't scientific research, and it doesn't cite any sources. But it brings up some interesting ideas. Is "natural" sleep necessarily the best? If we can take a drug that does the same thing for our brains and bodies as sleeping, is there any reason we shouldn't? What if the sleep replacement wasn't a drug, but rather an external device?

Perhaps most importantly, what would you do if you didn't have to sleep? I obviously know what I'd be doing I'd be doing...

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Technology kept track of Boston marathoners during bomb blast

When yesterday's bombs went off at at the Boston Marathon, chaos erupted. Runners were still scattered about the 26-mile course. But technology was able to keep track of where they all were. You can read about it all here.

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Lose weight like a grizzly bear: eat seasonal foods and forage

Diet like a grizzly: Zookeepers in Chicago helped grizzly bears lose hundreds of pounds of weight by making some simple diet and behavior changes.Courtesy DiliffWhen zookeepers at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo noticed their grizzly bears were getting flabby, they came up with a novel idea on how to turn their health around. They got the bears acting and eating more like they do in their natural environments. And the lessons learned for the grizzlies can easily be applied to us humans to eat better, too.

In fact, there's a growing trend in medicine now to for doctors and veterinarians to share their research to find out if new behaviors that can help animals could help humans, too. You can read all about it here.

But looking specifically at the grizzly bears in Chicago, zookeepers ditched the laboratory composed diets of mixing dog foods and ground beef for the bears and went to more traditional berries, grains and meats the bears would actually prey on like fish and rabbits. The food was no longer delivered on metal trays the same time each day, but hidden around the bear's enclosure, forcing them to forage and work to get their grub. Within a year, both bears had lost hundreds of pounds.

So what's the human equivalent diet modifications? For one thing, not stockpiling up several weeks worth of food is a good start. Rather, buy just a few days worth of fresher, seasonal foods at a time. Most vegetables at grocery stores now days are engineered to have longer shelf lives, but less nutrition. Buying foods at farmers' markets and the like can lead to healthier greens.

And like a grizzly, we can burn more calories if we "forage" by walking or biking to the market. Not using a cart in a store or a car to transport our food home will also limit the amount of what we buy to what fits nicely in a basket or bag.

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Smart Bandages

Not your grandma's bandageCourtesy Ivy DawnedResearchers at the University of Bath have developed a wound dressing that can detect infection. In the presence of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, tiny nanocapsules release dye that fluoresces under UV light. Currently, these wound dressings are being used for pediatric burn victims, whose immature immune systems make them particularly susceptible to infection.

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Humanity and the upper limits of the biosphere

How much of terrestrial plant and animal life can humanity safely consume without seriously damaging the live-support systems of our planet? It has been challenging to answer that question because of the difficulty of measuring how much biomass is produced annually on land and how much of this yearly production humans co-opt.

Huge regional variability exists in terrestrial productivity from year to year because of heat, cold, floods and droughts but what is striking from recent reviews of more than 30 years of satellite imagery is how little global variability there is annually. Each year, terrestrial plants fix about 53.6 petagrams of biomass – a gigantic quantity but what matters is not so much the size of annual biomass production but rather that it seems to vary by only about two percent per year.

Recent estimates from satellite imagery indicate that humans now appropriate 38 percent of all terrestrial biomass generated annually. That would seem to leave 62 percent on the table for expanded human consumption but the vast majority of this biomass appears to be not harvestable because it includes root growth below ground and biomass production on lands in parks or wilderness areas that are either protected or inaccessible.

It appears likely that the upper limit for how much of terrestrial biomass that humans can co-opt annually is only about ten percent more for a total of 48 percent. Current land use patterns and projections that the global human population may reach nine billion by 2050 suggest that this 48 percent of all available terrestrial biomass may be reached within the next few decades.

Earth's primary photosnythetic productivity: The darkest green shading in the Amazon and Southeast Asia are regions of the world where photosynthetic activity is by far the most active on an annual basisCourtesy NASA

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Beware of the killer beaver

Sounding more like something out of a Monty Python movie, this story actually is true. A Belarus man trying to take a picture of a beaver in the wild was attacked and killed by the watery rodent.

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Quacking up over research, or why should the government fund a study on ducks' sex organs?

Are we too sexy for research?: A controversy over government funding of research about duck genitalia has people asking bigger questions about public funding for scientific purposes.Courtesy Luis Miguel Bugallo SánchezThey're the favorite punching bags and punchlines for politicians and late night comics: those seemingly odd science research projects. Right now there's a turmoil over a National Science Foundation grant of some $385,000 to study the genitalia of ducks.

The Washington Post today digs deeper into these kinds of projects. Are they frivolous? Do they lead to deeper scientific findings? If the government doesn't provide the funding, would anybody else? Does the government have a obligation to help provide opportunities for such research to happen? Who and how do we decide if a study is worth funding for the greater good of society? They're all interesting questions.

One of the problems of the past, the article notes, is that scientists typically have kept quiet and take their lumps from the critics while their research goes on. The thinking is that the critics don't want to understand science, so why even engage them in an argument. And unknown benefits can emerge from such projects. A researcher looking into why bluebirds are blue is now on the cusp of developing a new way to make paint.

It's a great topic for debate. Read the article and share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.

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