News about science, space, diseases and other phenomena.
Contents:
Octopus Love is Complex
Every octopus romance resembles a Shakespearean tragedy. A new study has found that octopuses have a complex love life that includes courtship, hand holding, jealousy and even murder.
The study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who journeyed off the coast of Indonesia found that wild octopuses are far from the shy, unromantic loners their captive brethren appear to be.
The scientists watched the Abdopus aculeatus octopus, which are the size of an orange, for several weeks and published their findings recently in the journal Marine Biology.
They witnessed picky, macho males carefully select a mate, then guard their newly domesticated digs so jealously they would occasionally use their 8-to-10-inch tentacles to strangle a romantic rival.
The researchers also observed smaller "sneaker" male octopuses put on feminine airs, such as swimming girlishly near the bottom and keeping their male brown stripes hidden in order to win unsuspecting conquests.
Al Gore Gives Updated Climate Change Slidehow at TED
Here is Al Gore's brand-new slideshow (which premiered here on TED.com). In the slideshow Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting. In the presentation Gore briefs the audience on the latest climate change data that shows a worsening problem. The data shows that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting. Al Gore also compares the climates of Earth and Venus and explains the Greenhouse effect.
Pygmy Seahorses
Pygmy seahorses look very much like the gorgonian coral they live their entire lives on. These tiny seahorses are only 2 centimeters long. Here's a video clip from National Geographic that shares a little more information about these small but fascinating creatures. The seahorses in the video clip are a reddish color but the Wikipedia entry says there is also a yellow species of pygmy seahorse.
Hillsboro, Virginia Has a Bamboo Problem
The Wall Street Journal's Matthew Rose reports in the video below that bamboo has become a huge problem in Hillsboro, Virginia. A type of bamboo called running bamboo can be as problematic as kudzu. It grows extremely quickly and spread rapidly.
Earth Hour 2008
Earth Hour 2008 is expanding from 2007 when Sydney went black for one hour to promote the idea of easing the pressure on the Earth's energy resources. You can also visit the website for Earth Hour 2008 here and the here.
1.2 Million Year Old Human Bones Found in Europe
Reuters reports in the video below that archaeologists have discovered bones, fossils and stone tools from the earliest known humans, or hominids, in Europe.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence that humans were active in Europe about 1 million years ago but they had never found any human remains - until now.
Massive Star Explodes The light from an exploding star trillions of miles was recently observed by astronomers. The huge star that exploded was estimated to be 150 times as massive as the Sun.
A gargantuan explosion ripped apart a star perhaps 150 times more massive than our sun in a relatively nearby galaxy in the most powerful and brightest supernova ever observed, astronomers said on Monday.
And there is one such star in our own Milky Way galaxy that appears to be on the brink of dying in just such a supernova.
The exploding star's dramatic death may have come in a rare type of supernova reserved for "freakishly massive" stars that astronomers had speculated about but never previously witnessed.
The supernova, designated as SN 2006gy, occurred 240 million light years away in a galaxy called NGC 1260, and was studied using observations from NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as earthbound optical telescopes.
It was the brightest supernova ever observed by Chanda. This video shows how Chandra observes an exploding star.
Dolphin Rescues Stranded Whales
This AP video tells the amazing story of a dolphin named Moko who rescued two straned whales. A group of scientists failed to rescue two pygmy sperm whales stranded on the sand bar of a New Zealand beach. Moko, a dolphin known locally, dolphin quickly came to the rescue and communicated with the whales and guided them safely to deeper waters. The dolphin then returned to the coastline to play with children swimming. There is also an article about Moko's whale rescue here.
Athur C. Clarke Dies at Age 90 Arthur C. Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. Clarke was best known for his work 2001: A Space Odyssey which was written as both a book and a screenplay simultaneously. Clarke also authored hundreds of other books and short stories during his lifetime. The UK Fantastic Fiction site has a lengthy list here. Arthur C. Clarke is also known for his three laws of prediction.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
You can view a photo gallery of Arthur C. Clarke here on Yahoo News.
One of the many things we should not forget about Arthur C. Clarke is his opinion of how important the space program is:
Arthur C. Clarke: The inspirational value of the space program is probably of far greater importance to education than any input of dollars... A whole generation is growing up which has been attracted to the hard disciplines of science and engineering by the romance of space.
Neckband Sends Voiceless Phone Calls New Scientistreports that gadget developers at Ambient Corporation have invented a neckband called the Audeo that allows the wearer to send voiceless phone calls controlled by neurological signals. The wearer can control nerve signals that go to the device and are then transfered by the neckband in the form of a computerized voice. Currently only about 150 words and phrases can be used on the device but New Scientist says Ambient's goal is to make it so complete sentences using any words or phrases can be delivered in silence.
With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.
A video (right) shows the system being used to place the first public voiceless phone call on stage at a recent conference held by microchip manufacturer Texas Instruments. Michael Callahan, co-founder of Ambient Corporation, which developed the neckband, demonstrates the device, called the Audeo.
Users needn't worry about that the system voicing their inner thoughts though. Callahan says producing signals for the Audeo to decipher requires "a level above thinking". Users must think specifically about voicing words for them to be picked up by the equipment.
The graph above shows the number of tornadoes for this year compared to recent years and to the ten-year average. The red line shows the number of tornadoes this year. As you can see the number we have had so far this year is way above recent years and the 10-year average. The U.S. gets about 800 tornadoes a year on average according to a LiveScience article. This year there have already been over 400.
This month is normally the time of year when we just start to experience the most severe weather and tornadoes. The peak for the Southern states is usually March, April and May. Northern states get more tornadoes in the Summer months. We still have a long ways to go in this year's tornado season but it is off to an unusual start. Large outbreaks like the Super Tuesday Outbreak have helped to spike this year's figure.
The graph above is from the SPC's website. You can view a much larger version of it here.
Lava Flows From Mount Kilauea
Lava from Mount Kilauea in Hawaii is flowing into the Pacific ocean. Reuters reports that lava from the Kilauea volcano began flowing into the Pacific ocean on March 6th. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world continued to erupt. Reuters says Kilauea has erupted 34 times since 1952. The USGS has a special page about Mount Kilauea here. Below is a video from Reuters showing the recent lava flow and an embedded map from Google showing Mount Kilauea's location.
The fossils of two meat-eating dinosaurs named Eocarcharia and Kryptops have been discovered in the Sahara Desert. The newly discovered dinosaurs appear in a paper this month in the scientific journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The fossils were discovered in 2000 on an expedition led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno.
Sereno and co-author paleontologist Stephen Brusatte of the University of Bristol say the new fossils provide a glimpse of an earlier stage in the evolution of the bizarre meat-eaters of Gondwana, the southern landmass. "T-rex has become such a fixture of Cretaceous lore, most people don't realize that no tyrannosaur ever set foot on a southern continent," said Sereno. Instead, particularly distinctive meat-eaters arose, some of which bore no resemblance to the "tyrant king," beyond their appetites for fresh meat.
The two dinosaurs have distinctive faces. Kryptops probably ate mostly from already dead carcasses (like hyenas) and Eocarcharia dinops ate live prey (like sharks).
Short-snouted Kryptops palaios, or "old hidden face," was named for the horny covering that appears to have covered nearly all of its face. "A fast, two-legged hyena gnawing and pulling apart a carcass," remarked even Brusatte, "is how we might best imagine Kryptops' dining habits." Kryptops also had short, armored jaws with small teeth. The scientists say these teeth make Krptops better at eating from a carcass than trying to eat live prey.
Eocarcharia dinops - or "fierce-eyed dawn shark" - was named for its blade-shaped teeth and prominent bony eyebrow. Unlike Kryptops, the scientists say its teeth were designed for disabling live prey and severing body parts. Eocarcharia and kin (called carcharodontosaurids) gave rise to the largest predators on southern continents, matching or exceeding Tyrannosaurus in size. Eocarcharia's brow was swollen into a massive band of bone, giving it a menacing glare.
Both of the newly discovered dinosaurs were about 25-feet long. Project Exploration has more information about the new dinosaurs, their contemporary species and Cretaceous habitat, and the expedition on which the fossils were discovered.
This photo shows the Earth and Moon as seen from Mars. The image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on October 3, 2007.
At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.
You can see a larger view of the image here. Source: NASA
The Mola Mola Can Gain Over 60 Million Times Its Birthweight
This Mola Mola or Ocean Sunfish is one of the largest and stangest animals found in the sea. The Mola Mola is the world's largest bony fish. As the National Geographic video below describes it - the Mola Mola looks like a "massive swimming head." The Mola Mola can weigh up to 4,000 pounds. It can gain over sixty million times its birthweight. For more on this strange fish check out the listings on Fishbase.org, OceanLight.com and Wikipedia. The Ocean Sunfish website also has lots of facts, photos and news.
Electron in Motion Filmed For the First Time Scientists have managed to capture an electron in motion on film for the first time. MSNBC reports that scientists used very short pulses of intense laser light called attosecond pulses and a stroboscope to film the electron.
Previously it was impossible to photograph electrons because of their extreme speediness, so scientists had to rely on more indirect methods. These methods could only measure the effect of an electron's movement, whereas the new technique can capture the entire event.
Extremely short flashes of light are necessary to capture an electron in motion. A technology developed within the last few years can generate short pulses of intense laser light, called attosecond pulses, to get the job done.
"It takes about 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle the nucleus of an atom. An attosecond is 10-18 seconds long, or, expressed in another way: an attosecond is related to a second as a second is related to the age of the universe," said Johan Mauritsson of Lund University in Sweden.
Using another laser, scientists can guide the motion of the electron to capture a collision between an electron and an atom on film.
Here's the video. The electron's movements shown in the film correspond to a single wavelength of light so the speed has been slowed down greatly so the human eye can observe the motion. The video can also be found here on the Attosecond Physics and
High-Order Harmonic Generation website. See also this post on the Curious Cat blog.
Strange Sightings in Ocean Depths Off Antarctica
Researchers collecting specimens off Antarctica have found strange creatures. Creatures like giant sea spiders, tunicates and organisms looking like slender glass were all found. Researchers also described a strange looking fish with "funny dangling bits" around their mouth. They saw thousands of creatures and as many as a quarter them were previously undiscovered. You can see some of them in the video clip below. An article in the Telegraph also has photos of the tunicates and a giant scale worm. Last year a psychedelic octopus was discovered in the in frigid waters off Antarctica.
Unfortunately, global warming may allow sharks and crabs to come and eat many of these defenseless ocean lifeforms.
"Sharks are going to arrive in Antarctica as long as the warming trend continues, a bit more slowly than crabs - crabs are going to get there first," said Professor Cheryl Wilga of the University of Rhode Island (URI), US. "But once they do get there they are capable of eating the organisms that live there."
Professor Wilga said the arrival of sharks and shell-crushing bony fishes would lead to dramatic changes in the number and proportions of species found there.
Shrimp, ribbon worms and brittle stars are likely to be the most vulnerable to population declines.
Dr Sven Thatje of the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, UK, said animals living in shallow water in Antarctica were unique on Earth today because they evolved in a very cold environment over tens of millions of years.
Scientists Find Fossil of the Frog from Hell A team of researchers from the UK's University College London (UCL) and New York's Stony Brook University have discovered the 70 million-year-old fossil of a massive dinosaur-eating frog in Madagascar. The scientists have named the frog Beelzebufo, meaning "the frog from hell."
The frog weighed 4kg and had a body length of up to 40cm. It also had a squat body, huge head and wide mouth. Professor Susan Evans, UCL Anatomy & Developmental Biology, said the frog would have been the size of a squashed beach-ball.
Evans said, "This frog, a relative of today's Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs."
The find is also interesting because it sheds new light on a debate about how the earth's land masses used to be arranged. The frog find gives credence to a theory that Madagascar was once linked to India and South America.
Professor Evans said, "Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today's Madagascan frogs, and akin to the Horned toads previously considered endemic to South America, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous. It also suggests that the initial spread of such beasts began earlier than that proposed by recent estimates."
Disney's House of the Future
The Associated Press has released this 1957 promotional video of Disneyland's
House of the Future. You can also see an article on the Disney's House of the Future here. The AP says Disneyland is set to unveil a new "House of the Future" this May in partnership with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. There's another old Disney House of the Future video here on YouTube.
Endangered Loggerhead Turtles Washing Up on UK Beaches
The Associated Press is reporting in the video below that endangered Loggerhead Turtles having been washing up on beaches in the UK and Ireland. These younger Loggerhead turtles may have been carried across the Atlantic Ocean by the Gulf Stream. Residents are being advised not to put the turtles back into the water becasue the colder water can be a shock to their system. Wildlife officials in the UK are attempting to collect the turtles in the hopes that they can be rehabilitated and eventually returned to the ocean.
Loggerhead turtles are protected by international treaties and agreements as well as national U.S. laws. The NOAA fisheries website has a detailed entry on Loggerhead turtles. Wikipedia's entry includes links to more Loggerhead resources.
Deadly Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak A rare string of powerful February tornadoes killed dozens of people and destroyed homes and businesses in the Mid-South. Wikipedia has been keep track. Currently, they show over fifty tornadoes in four states: Alabama, Arkanas, Kentucky and Tennessee. The death toll stands at 59. On Deadline has some links including this one that shows damage in the hard hit Union University.
You can read some of the reports filed by the National Weather Service here and here.
As you can see here and on the chart on the above right the early outbreak has put 2008 way above the norm for this time of year.
This Nightly News video show footage of some of the damage and investigates why some people didn't know these deadly tornadoes were on the way.
A new school in Chicago - The Latin School of Chicago - is opening with an impressive green roof from American Hydrotech. The green roof atop the Latin School is among a growing number of schools nationally that have incorporated green roofs into their building designs. The 5,500-square-foot green roof combines a high-performance waterproof membrane with lightweight green roof technology. The green roof is also accessible to students and faculty as a learning environment.
"The plantings will be fully established in about a year and I'm excited to see what the classes can fully do with it," Deb Sampey, middle school director, says. "Its first connection with the curriculum will probably be with our 8th grade and high school astronomy classes. But classes might also come up here for creative writing projects and just sit in this space and be inspired on a beautiful day."
More details about the green roof were described in a press release:
The multiple components of the Latin School green roof include a waterproofing membrane, insulation, and drainage/moisture retention elements, which are all part of a Garden Roof Assembly supplied by American Hydrotech, Inc. Hydrotech, founded in 1977 and based in Chicago, is a leader in the development, production and distribution of premium waterproofing and related construction products. Last year, the company?s green roof for the Ballard Library in Seattle, Washington, was included in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Top 10 Green Projects of 2006.
The Latin School's new green roof, in addition to its aesthetic qualities, offers multiple environmental benefits. Plants on the roof work to keep the structure's temperature down, save on heating and cooling costs, reduce stormwater runoff, extend the useful life of the roof and reduce the urban heat island effect.
"Chicago is at the forefront of the green roof movement in the United States and the Latin School is now an active participant in this movement," says Edward J. Jarger, regional manager of American Hydrotech. "We're very pleased the school selected our Garden Roof technology and we anticipate this will become a model for other schools nationwide."
Founded in 1888, The Latin School of Chicago serves a diverse community of 1,101 students in junior kindergarten through twelfth grade from Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. The school worked with the award-winning architectural firm of Nagle Hartray Danker Kagan McKay Penney to design a building that is in keeping with the feel of the neighborhood while providing first-class educational amenities and sound green design. In addition to the green roof, the building provides significant green space, including private gardens on the ground level. Recycled materials were used throughout the building when feasible and specially-treated windows and sunshades have been installed to reduce the building's use of natural resources to heat and cool the facility.
Green buildings are a growing trend. Eventually there will be many buildings that have green roofs. There will even be green skyscrapers that behave more like an ecosystem than an environmentally-unfriendly steel fortress.
The light from an exploding star trillions of miles was 
Arthur C. Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. Clarke was best known for his work 2001: A Space Odyssey which was written as both a book and a screenplay simultaneously. Clarke also authored hundreds of other books and short stories during his lifetime. The UK Fantastic Fiction site has a lengthy list 
Scientists have managed to capture an electron in motion on film for the first time. MSNBC 
A team of researchers from the UK's University College London (UCL) and New York's Stony Brook University have discovered the 70 million-year-old fossil of a massive dinosaur-eating frog in Madagascar. The scientists have named the frog Beelzebufo, meaning "the frog from hell."
A rare string of powerful February tornadoes killed dozens of people and destroyed homes and businesses in the Mid-South. Wikipedia has been 
