Friday, May 19, 2006
American Chestnut trees found
A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs.
The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees.
"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight," said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance."
The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees.
"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight," said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance."
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Sony shows new PlayStation 3 console
Sony Corp. executives showcased the benefits of the company's upcoming PlayStation 3 console saying its technological features will give it an edge over rival products from Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. Sony executives again touted what they claim are competitive advantages, such as the PS3's speedy "Cell" processor, the console's Blu-ray disk format for high-definition video and an online network that will include video chat and micropayments.
Compared to the previous models, says CBS News Technology Analyst Larry Magid, the new game consoles being unveiled this week are dramatically better, as manufacturers show off some real advances in technology. "The graphics are much more vivid and lifelike and the action is noticeably more realistic," says Magid, adding that Sony has a lot riding on PlayStation 3. "Apple has taken away much of the market for Sony's WalkMan products and even though Sony's flat panel TV sales are going very well, the company does have some serious competition when it comes to high-end TVs." The PS3, which was originally set to debut this spring, is now expected in the fall. Key information such as the exact launch date, price and games lineup have not been announced.
Compared to the previous models, says CBS News Technology Analyst Larry Magid, the new game consoles being unveiled this week are dramatically better, as manufacturers show off some real advances in technology. "The graphics are much more vivid and lifelike and the action is noticeably more realistic," says Magid, adding that Sony has a lot riding on PlayStation 3. "Apple has taken away much of the market for Sony's WalkMan products and even though Sony's flat panel TV sales are going very well, the company does have some serious competition when it comes to high-end TVs." The PS3, which was originally set to debut this spring, is now expected in the fall. Key information such as the exact launch date, price and games lineup have not been announced.
Lesbians Brains react differently
Lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, new research indicates. That's in line with an earlier study that had indicated gay men's brain responses were different from straight men - though the difference for men was more pronounced than has now been found in women.
Lesbians' brains reacted somewhat, though not completely, like those of heterosexual men, a team of Swedish researchers said in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A year ago, the same group reported findings for gay men that showed their brain response to hormones was similar to that of heterosexual women. In both cases the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior.
"It shows sexual orientation may very well have a different basis between men and women ... this is not just a mirror image situation," said Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
"The important thing is to be open to the likely situation that there are biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation," added Witelson, who was not part of the research team.
http://www.pnas.org
Lesbians' brains reacted somewhat, though not completely, like those of heterosexual men, a team of Swedish researchers said in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A year ago, the same group reported findings for gay men that showed their brain response to hormones was similar to that of heterosexual women. In both cases the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior.
"It shows sexual orientation may very well have a different basis between men and women ... this is not just a mirror image situation," said Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
"The important thing is to be open to the likely situation that there are biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation," added Witelson, who was not part of the research team.
http://www.pnas.org
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Students Test Prototype Mars Space Suit
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Fabio Sau says moving from his native Italy to attend the University of North Dakota was like "coming to another planet" - and now he's using the state's wildest terrain for a simulated mission to Mars.
Sau is the guinea pig for an experimental Mars space suit that he and about 40 other students from five North Dakota schools developed under a $100,000 grant from NASA.
He has been wearing the 47-pound, two-piece suit around the North Dakota Badlands, the highly eroded landscape in the western part of the state that researchers say resembles Martian terrain.
"It's beautiful," the space studies graduate student said of the suit as he put it through its paces Friday night for editors at the North Dakota Newspaper Association.
The suit was developed in just over a year by students from the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State, Dickinson State, the state College of Science and Turtle Mountain Community College, said project manager Pablo de Leon, an aerospace engineer at UND.
The NASA grant went to the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium of schools to train students in space travel support systems and to do it as a cooperative effort among teams, according to the consortium's Web site.
De Leon, 41, said NASA got a bargain with the North Dakota project. Suit components developed by the students have been the basis for three patent applications so far, he said. And the grant is a tiny fraction compared to the price tag of $22 million each for space shuttle suits, he said.
The suit, with a transparent helmet, rigid upper body section and back pack holding communications gear, is "essentially a self-contained spacecraft," de Leon said.
It is designed so the wearer can walk up a 45-degree slope. The gloves, which must withstand low pressure and cold, have enough dexterity for tying a shoe, Sau said. Its boots are modified cold-weather hunting boots.
While it is heavy for exploring the Badlands, it would weigh only about 16 pounds in the lower gravity of Mars. The inner pressure suit is covered with what looks like a blue coverall.
The color was chosen to make it stand out, de Silva said. "The dust on Mars is red. If a white suit gets dirty, you wouldn't be able to differentiate an astronaut on the surface," he said.
Most of the students from the five colleges who worked on the complex project never met until after the design was completed, said Jennie Untener, a UND space studies graduate student and space suit systems manager. They communicated mostly by phone or over the Internet.
"It's good the schools were able to work together," said Untener, who's working on a thesis on the psychology of long-term space travel. "Other times, it's more of a competition."
While a usable suit would have to sustain an astronaut for several hours of exploration on the surface, the students' design did not address the issue of Mother Nature's call.
"You've got to hold it," de Leon said.
UND Space Studies: http://www.space.edu/aerospace/
Space Suit Design Team: http://www.human.space.edu/
Sau is the guinea pig for an experimental Mars space suit that he and about 40 other students from five North Dakota schools developed under a $100,000 grant from NASA.
He has been wearing the 47-pound, two-piece suit around the North Dakota Badlands, the highly eroded landscape in the western part of the state that researchers say resembles Martian terrain.
"It's beautiful," the space studies graduate student said of the suit as he put it through its paces Friday night for editors at the North Dakota Newspaper Association.
The suit was developed in just over a year by students from the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State, Dickinson State, the state College of Science and Turtle Mountain Community College, said project manager Pablo de Leon, an aerospace engineer at UND.
The NASA grant went to the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium of schools to train students in space travel support systems and to do it as a cooperative effort among teams, according to the consortium's Web site.
De Leon, 41, said NASA got a bargain with the North Dakota project. Suit components developed by the students have been the basis for three patent applications so far, he said. And the grant is a tiny fraction compared to the price tag of $22 million each for space shuttle suits, he said.
The suit, with a transparent helmet, rigid upper body section and back pack holding communications gear, is "essentially a self-contained spacecraft," de Leon said.
It is designed so the wearer can walk up a 45-degree slope. The gloves, which must withstand low pressure and cold, have enough dexterity for tying a shoe, Sau said. Its boots are modified cold-weather hunting boots.
While it is heavy for exploring the Badlands, it would weigh only about 16 pounds in the lower gravity of Mars. The inner pressure suit is covered with what looks like a blue coverall.
The color was chosen to make it stand out, de Silva said. "The dust on Mars is red. If a white suit gets dirty, you wouldn't be able to differentiate an astronaut on the surface," he said.
Most of the students from the five colleges who worked on the complex project never met until after the design was completed, said Jennie Untener, a UND space studies graduate student and space suit systems manager. They communicated mostly by phone or over the Internet.
"It's good the schools were able to work together," said Untener, who's working on a thesis on the psychology of long-term space travel. "Other times, it's more of a competition."
While a usable suit would have to sustain an astronaut for several hours of exploration on the surface, the students' design did not address the issue of Mother Nature's call.
"You've got to hold it," de Leon said.
UND Space Studies: http://www.space.edu/aerospace/
Space Suit Design Team: http://www.human.space.edu/
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Vitamin A like drug cuts the risk of a second breast cancer
A 15-year follow-up of women in a breast cancer trial has found that fenretinide -- a drug related to vitamin A -- significantly cuts the risk of a second breast cancer among younger patients. The Italian research team reporting the findings on-line (Thursday 4 May) in Annals of Oncology, are sufficiently convinced of the drug's protective potential to call for a trial to test its use as a preventive in pre-menopausal healthy women at high risk of the disease.
Common ancestor of fish, land animals found
Scientists have discovered a 405-million-year-old fossilized fish that shares characteristics of modern bony fishes and land vertebrates.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, bony sea creatures of the group Osteichtheyes hit an evolutionary fork in the road. Some animals took the path towards Actinopterygii, a group of modern, ray-finned fish.
The rest evolved into Sacropterygii, the group that includes the ancestors of land vertebrates — coelacanths, lungfishes, and tetrapods.
Scientists pieced together the new fish species, Meemannia eos, from four incomplete skulls unearthed in China. While the skull's roof looks actinopterygian, the fish possesses a network of pores and canals in the hard surface-tissue, called cosmine, which is characteristic of Sacropterygii.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, bony sea creatures of the group Osteichtheyes hit an evolutionary fork in the road. Some animals took the path towards Actinopterygii, a group of modern, ray-finned fish.
The rest evolved into Sacropterygii, the group that includes the ancestors of land vertebrates — coelacanths, lungfishes, and tetrapods.
Scientists pieced together the new fish species, Meemannia eos, from four incomplete skulls unearthed in China. While the skull's roof looks actinopterygian, the fish possesses a network of pores and canals in the hard surface-tissue, called cosmine, which is characteristic of Sacropterygii.
