LET X = X

Quantum Computing Closer as Scientists Store, Retrieve Data Inside Atom

2008-10-24T16:07:00.006-04:00

BERKELEY, CA - Another step towards quantum computing – the Holy Grail of data processing and storage – was achieved when an international team of scientists that included researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) were able to successfully store and retrieve information using the nucleus of an atom.

In a paper entitled: “Solid-state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin,” published in the October 23 issue of the journal /Nature/, the team described an experiment in which exceptionally pure and isotopically controlled crystals of silicon were precisely doped with phosphorus atoms. Quantum information was processed in phosphorus electrons, transferred to phosphorus nuclei, then subsequently transferred back to the electrons. This is the first demonstration that a single atomic nucleus can serve as quantum computational memory.

John Morton of Oxford University was the lead author. Co-authoring the paper from Berkeley Lab were Thomas Schenkel, Eugene Haller and Joel Ager. Other co-authors were Richard Brown, Brendon Lovett and Arzhang Ardavan of Oxford University, and Alexei Tyryshkin, Shyam Shankar and Stephen Lyon, of Princeton, University.

The immediate lure of quantum computing is blinding speed: a quantum computer would be able to perform certain mathematical tasks, such as factoring, many billions of times faster than the most powerful supercomputers of today. Beyond that, quantum computing should make it possible to engage calculations that cannot be considered with current “classical” computing technology. The secret behind quantum computing is the weird, counterintuitive but demonstrably real properties of quantum mechanics.

In classical computing, information is processed and stored based on the charge of an electron, and represented in a binary digit or “bit.” Each bit carries a value of 0 (no charge) or 1 (charge). Quantum computing utilizes an intrinsic quantum property called “spin,” in which certain particles can act as if they were tiny bar magnets. Spin is assigned a directional state of either "up" or "down,” which can be used to encode data in 0s and 1s. However, unlike charge in classical computing, which is either present or not, spin can be up, down or both, thanks to a quantum effect called “superposition.”

Superpositioning exponentially expands the storage capabilities of a quantum data bit or “qubit.” Whereas a byte of classical data, made up of three bits, can represent only one of the eight possible combinations of 0s and 1s, a quantum equivalent (sometimes called a qubyte) can represent all eight combinations at once. Furthermore, thanks to another quantum property called “entanglement,” operations on all eight combinations can be performed simultaneously.

Of the many challenges facing quantum computing, one of the biggest has been finding a way to preserve the integrity of data while it is stored. Although the spin of electrons has proven well-suited for data processing, it is too fragile to be used as memory – the data quickly becomes corrupted by the influence of other electrons. To overcome this obstacle, the co-authors of this experiment turned to the more protected environs of the atomic nucleus.

“In this exciting collaboration with colleagues from Oxford and Princeton, we have reported on a very important demonstration of coherent information transfer between the electron spin (processing qubit) and the nuclear spin (memory qubit) of phosphorus atoms in isotopically enriched silicon crystals,” said co-author Schenkel, a physicist in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, who has been a leader in the use of ion beams for the development of quantum computer test structures. (See A Toolkit for Quantum Computing.)

“The electron spin information was faithfully stored in the nuclear spin for nearly two seconds (thousands of times longer than ever reported for similar studies), then transferred back to the electron spin with about 90-percent fidelity,” Schenkel said.

In this study, the co-authors created a superposition state in electron spin and transferred it to nuclear spin using a combination of microwave and radio-frequency pulses, which they applied to phosphorus-31. This stable isotope of phosphorus is the ideal electron donor for silicon-28, the stable isotope of silicon that is the basis for today’s computer technology. Said lead author Morton in a statement, “The electron acts as a middle-man between the nucleus and the outside world. It gives us a way to have our cake and eat it - fast processing speeds from the electron, and long memory times from the nucleus.”

Crucial to the success of this study were the exceptionally pure silicon-28 crystals created by co-authors Haller and Ager. Haller is a world authority on crystal growth and purification and is credited with launching the modern era of isotopically enriched semiconductor research. Ager designed and built a one-of-its-kind reactor for creating isotopically enriched and chemically pure silicon, featuring a high conversion efficiency.

Said Haller, “Crystals of natural silicon contain 4.7-percent of the isotope silicon-29, in addition to silicon-28 and silicon-30. For this study we needed silicon crystals that were not only chemically pure, but isotopically pure as well because silicon-29 has a nuclear spin that would interfere with the readout of the electron and nuclear spins of the phosphorus.”

Since the silicon crystals to be doped would consist of billions of atoms, creating isotopically pure crystals of silicon-28 was a painstaking process. Once these exceptionally pure crystals were created, they then had to be doped with phosphorus-31 in specific areas of the crystal and to just the right amount – an undertaking that Ager compared to adding one extra person to Earth’s population at one particular address.

Now that it has been demonstrated that electron spin data can be stored and retrieved via nuclear spin, future steps will require improving spin control and readout mechanisms. Also, while the quantum memory time observed in this study is exceptionally long by previous standards, it should still be possible to significantly extend this time.

“The good news is that there are no know physical limits that would prevent quantum memory time in nuclear spin from being longer,” said Ager. “With even greater isotopic and chemical purity of our silicon crystals, we should be able to store data in the nucleus for an arbitrarily long period of time, maybe even in terms of years.”

The Berkeley Lab portion of this research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of its Basic Energy Sciences programs, and in part
by the National Security Agency.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy mational laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our Website at www.lbl.gov/

NASA & US GOV'T SEEK HYPERSONIC SCIENCE RESEARCH PARTNERS

2008-09-22T14:52:00.004-04:00

For more information about NASA's aeronautics research, visit:
NASA Areonautics!

Click here for more information about NASA and agency programs.

Want more info. on the announcement and the process for submitting proposals? Click here!

NASA AND AIR FORCE WORK TO ESTABLISH HYPERSONIC SCIENCE CENTERS

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the United States Air Force are looking for university and industry partners as they work to advance hypersonic
research.

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington and the
Air Force Research Laboratory's Office of Science Research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, have released a broad agency announcement describing their intent to establish three national hypersonic science centers. Hypersonic speed is defined as Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, and faster.

NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program and the Air Force Office of Science Research plan to set aside as much as $30 million to fund the centers over five years. The maximum grant will be approximately $2 million a year. The jointly funded program will support university-level basic science or engineering research that provides improved understanding of hypersonic flight.

"We have identified three critical research areas: air-breathing propulsion, materials and structures, and boundary layer control," said James Pittman, principal investigator for NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program's Hypersonics Project at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "These three areas are the biggest hurdles to successful hypersonic flight and low-cost space access using an air-breathing engine."

CONSUMER ALERT - Canadian Food Inspection Agency

2008-09-13T12:16:00.001-04:00

Consumer Advisory - Infant formula originating from China

September 12, 2008 -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada are advising consumers to avoid purchasing infant formula originating from China. While this product is not approved for sale in Canada, it is possible that it could have been illegally imported to Canada and may be for sale in some stores that carry ethnic foods.

The Canadian government has become aware that melamine, a toxic substance when consumed, has been detected in infant formula which may have been exported illegally from China. Several illnesses in infants in China, and at least one death, have been linked to the consumption of this product.

To date, no infant formulas contaminated with melamine have been found in Canada and, in fact, no formulas produced in China are approved for sale in Canada.

The CFIA is investigating this situation and is advising consumers to avoid these products if they are found on store shelves. If consumers do have this product, they should contact us at 1 800 442-2342.

The CFIA is implementing a border lookout on milk protein products and will test any suspect products found. In addition, CFIA inspectors will be checking retail establishments to determine if the formula is present in stores.

All infant formula sold in Canada must be approved by Health Canada. Infant formula manufacturers are required to submit detailed information for Health Canada’s review in order to ensure that infant formula sold in Canada is safe and nutritious.

Health Canada has contacted the four major manufacturers of infant formula sold in Canada: Abbott Nutritionals, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Nestlé Canada and PBM Nutritionals. All four have confirmed that they do not use any milk ingredients sourced from China.

Melamine is a chemical compound used in a number of commercial and industrial applications. Canada does not allow its use as a food ingredient. As a precautionary measure, the Agency is verifying that infant formula containing this product is not on Canadian store shelves.

No illnesses have been reported in Canada related to the consumption of this product.

For more information, please contact the CFIA at 1 800 442 2342 or visit our website at www.inspection.gc.ca.

Made-in-China Baby Formula Found to Contain Melamine

2008-09-12T11:07:00.003-04:00

Travel in Asia? Have a baby? Remember the poisoned pet food scandal? Well, heads up!The US F.D.A. is alerting consumers that melamine has been found in made in China baby formula, say reports in USA Today. Chinese press reports say a huge recall is underway in China.

Berkeley Labs on LHC first beams & US contributions to the projecr

2008-09-10T10:10:00.004-04:00

First Beam for Large Hadron Collider

Washington, D.C. – An international collaboration of scientists today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the world’s most powerful particle accelerator—the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) invested a total $531 million in the construction of the accelerator and its detectors, which scientists believe could help unlock extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe.

Celebrations across the U.S. and around the world mark the LHC’s first circulating beam, an occasion more than 15 years in the making. An estimated 10,000 people from 60 countries have helped design and build the accelerator and its massive particle detectors, including more than 1,700 scientists, engineers, students and technicians from 94 U.S. universities and laboratories supported by DOE’s Office of Science and NSF.

“As the largest and most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the LHC represents a monumental technical achievement,” said U.S. Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach. “I congratulate the world's scientists and engineers who have made contributions to the construction of the accelerator for reaching this milestone. We now eagerly await the results that will emerge from operation of this extraordinary machine.”

The first circulating beam is a major accomplishment on the way to the ultimate goal: high-energy beams colliding in the centers of the LHC’s particle detectors. Beyond revealing a new world of unknown particles, the LHC experiments could explain why those particles exist and behave as they do. They could reveal the origins of mass, shed light on dark matter, uncover hidden symmetries of the universe and possibly find extra dimensions of space.

NSF has focused its support on funding university scientists who have contributed to the design and construction of the two largest detectors, CMS and ATLAS, and promoted the development of advanced computing innovations, essential to address the challenges posed by the enormity and richness of data to be accumulated. Continued support will enable scientists to optimize detector performance, successful data accumulation and sophisticated analysis, necessary for discovery.

“This national and international collaboration of unprecedented scope, and our investment in basic science, fundamental to the NSF mission, provide an exciting opportunity to solve some of the core mysteries of the universe,” said Arden L. Bement, Jr., director of the NSF. “With the operation of the LHC, anticipation of transformative scientific discoveries soars to new heights.”

DOE provided support for the design and construction of the ATLAS and CMS detectors through two DOE national laboratories—Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois. While the construction was managed through Fermilab and Brookhaven, scientists and engineers at universities and other DOE national laboratories—Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California—played key roles in the design and construction and are finalizing preparations to collect and analyze the data at the energy frontier. In addition, DOE supported about 150 scientists, engineers and technicians from three DOE national laboratories—Brookhaven, Fermilab and Berkeley Lab—that built critical components for the LHC accelerator. They are joined by colleagues from DOE’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Texas A&M University in ongoing accelerator R&D.

“The LHC is a discovery machine,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar, “its research programme has the potential to change our view of the Universe profoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity that’s as old as mankind itself.”

Large Hadron Collider Rap and other info

2008-09-10T09:55:00.007-04:00

The LHC has been fired up without incident but the first collisions won't occur for about a month.

You can see CERN LIVE WEBCASTS HERE.

the LHC:

Why? check it: The LHC Rap :)

3 part series on the LHC experiments:

NY Nuke Plant Sits Atop Potential Earhquake Zone

2008-09-04T20:44:00.007-04:00

According to NASA's Earth Observatory, New York City is in greater danger of earthquake damage than was previously believed.

NASA points that, alarmingly, the Indian Point nuclear facility just north of the city, sits on top of the meeting of two prevously unknown but active fault zones, according to a study by Columbia University scientists.

"We need to step backward from the simple old model, where you worry about one large, obvious fault, like they do in California," said coauthor Leonardo Seeber. "The problem here comes from many subtle faults. We now see there is earthquake activity on them. Each one is small, but when you add them up, they are probably more dangerous than we thought. We need to take a very close look." Seeber says that because the faults are mostly invisible at the surface and move infrequently, a big quake could easily hit one not yet identified. "The probability is not zero, and the damage could be great," he said. "It could be like something out of a Greek myth."

DIVERSE, WET ENVIRONMENTS EXISTED ON MARS: NASA

2008-07-17T09:25:00.003-04:00

WASHINGTON -- Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life.

One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.

"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and how diverse the wet environments were," said Scott Murchie, CRISM principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD.

The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to what is called the Noachian period of Mars' history, approximately 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. This period corresponds to the earliest years of the solar system, when Earth, the moon and Mars sustained a cosmic bombardment by comets and asteroids. Rocks of this age have largely
been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the moon, but were never exposed to liquid water. The phyllosilicate-containing rocks on Mars preserve a unique record of liquid water environments possibly suitable for life in the early
solar system.

"The minerals present in Mars' ancient crust show a variety of wet environments," said John Mustard, a member of the CRISM team from Brown University, and lead author of the Nature study. "In most locations the rocks are lightly altered by liquid water, but in a few locations they have been so altered that a great deal of water must have flushed though the rocks and soil. This is really exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life."

Another study, published in the June 2 issue of Nature Geosciences, finds that the wet conditions on Mars persisted for a long time. Thousands to millions of years after the clays formed, a system of river channels eroded them out of the highlands and concentrated them in a delta where the river emptied into a crater lake slightly larger than California's Lake Tahoe, approximately 25 miles in diameter.

"The distribution of clays inside the ancient lakebed shows that standing water must have persisted for thousands of years," says Bethany Ehlmann, another member of the CRISM team from Brown. Ehlmann is lead author of the study of an ancient lake within a northern-Mars impact basin called Jezero Crater. "Clays are wonderful at trapping
and preserving organic matter, so if life ever existed in this region, there's a chance of its chemistry being preserved in the delta."

CRISM's high spatial and spectral resolutions are better than any previous spectrometer sent to Mars and reveal variations in the types and composition of the phyllosilicate minerals. By combining data from CRISM and the orbiter's Context Imager and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the team identified three principal classes of water-related minerals dating to the early Noachian period. The classes are aluminum-phyllosilicates, hydrated silica or opal, and the more common and widespread iron/magnesium-phyllosilicates. The variations in the minerals suggest that different processes, or different types of watery environments, created them.

"Our whole team is turning our findings into a list of sites where future missions could land to look for organic chemistry and perhaps determine whether life ever existed on Mars," said Murchie.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Applied Physics Laboratory operates the CRISM instrument in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector.

Polar Continental Shelf Project: 50 Years of Arctic Research

2008-07-17T06:33:00.001-04:00

RESOLUTE BAY – The Government of Canada is recognizing 50 years of research and scientific support in Canada's Arctic by the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP) with an open house on July 12 at the Polar Shelf base in Resolute. Local residents, community leaders, media, staff and researchers are participating in the celebrations.

"Polar Shelf is recognized internationally for excellence in providing cost-effective logistical support to researchers working in the Arctic," said the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources. "And it will continue to play a key role in advancing our Government's Northern Strategy."

The Northern Strategy focuses on four priorities: promoting economic and social development, improving and devolving governance, protecting our environmental heritage and strengthening Canada's Arctic sovereignty. Announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last fall, the Northern Strategy is ultimately about turning potential into prosperity – so the North realizes its full social and economic potential with a future that is secure and sustainable.

In Budget 2008, the Government of Canada allocated $34 million for new geological mapping to spur exploration for energy and minerals resources primarily in the north. As well, the Canada–Nunavut Geoscience Office will continue to seek new ways to bolster resource exploration in the North. The federal government has also committed an additional $40 million over four years for various surveys and data collection to confirm the undersea boundary of Canada's extended continental shelf in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Canada has until 2013 to present its submission on the continental shelf to a United Nations committee.

"Our government is extremely proud of our strong commitment to geoscience and geological mapping in the North," said Minister Lunn. "Polar Shelf is an essential tool in delivering these initiatives that will help create new economic and social opportunities for northerners and all Canadians."

The work of Polar Shelf has taken on even greater significance in 2008 as it has been a key supporter of Canadian and international researchers conducting research as part of the International Polar Year (IPY). Canada allocated $150 million to IPY research activities – the largest new contribution of any country to this scientific project, which is itself the largest-ever global program dedicated to Arctic and Antarctic research.

Methane Capture from Leaking Landfills Made Mandatory in Ontario

2008-07-09T15:41:00.004-04:00

Edie is reporting that Ontario landfill sites must comply with new regulations requiring them to stop greenhouse gas methane from leaking off their tips. Government funding will be available to offset smaller operators capital costs.

Berkeley Lab Wins Four Prestigious 2008 R&D 100 Awards for Technology Advances

2008-07-09T15:24:00.001-04:00

BERKELEY, CA — Four of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards for 2008, which recognize the 100 most significant proven technological advances of the year, have gone to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues.

The awards bring the total of Berkeley Lab’s R&D 100 awards — also called the “Oscars of Invention” — to 48, plus two Editors’ Choice Awards over the years.

The 2008 award designees are:

-Berkeley Lab PhyloChip — a DNA microarray that quickly, comprehensively, and accurately identifies species within microbial samples from any environmental source, without any culturing required.

-Biomimetic Search Engine — a search engine that mimics the human cognitive process to find hidden and contextually relevant information in literature, databases, music, and other digital content.

-FastBit Bitmap Index — the fastest indexing technology for accelerating searching operations of massive databases. FastBit is able to search up to 100 times faster than other technologies.

-Nanostructured Polymer Electrolyte for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries — a polymer electrolyte that enables the development of rechargeable lithium metal batteries with energy density that is at least a factor of two larger than that of existing technology.

Cheryl Fragiadakis, who heads Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department, says, "Winning four awards is a tremendous achievement that speaks very highly of the strength of our science and its relevance to solving complex global problems. I am particularly pleased to note that this year's winners are already being used or further developed by partners in the private sector."

Berkeley Lab Phylochip

The PhyloChip packs an enormous amount of analytical power into a device not much larger than a quarter. Its ability to test all manner of environmental samples for their microbial content is unprecedented. It allows scientists to detect what was undetectable before now, at a speed inconceivable before now. It was developed by Gary Andersen, Todd DeSantis, Eoin Brodie, and Yvette Piceno of Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division.

The PhyloChip’s contributions to public health, medical diagnostics, and environmental cleanup projects have already paid large dividends. The information that it has already provided about the airborne bacterial content above U.S. cities is a first step in distinguishing between a climate-related bacterial change and a real bioterrorist threat. It promises even more advances in the development of biofuels and carbon sequestration. In short, scientists are continually finding new ways to use the PhyloChip, and make significant new discoveries along the way.

Biomimetic Search Engine

The Biomimetic Search Engine is the only search engine that couples the way people learn with the unmatched speed and data storage capabilities of computers. In doing so, it is revolutionizing how digital content is searched and utilized. Users can search huge databases and determine how objects are related, in what contexts they are related, and the strengths of those relationships. It was developed by Kasian Franks and Connie Myers, formerly of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division, and Raf Podowski. Both Franks and Podowski are now with the Emeryville, CA-based start-up company SeeqPod. A music search engine using the Biomimetic Search Engine can be found at www.seeqpod.com.

The Biomimetic Search Engine goes far beyond simply sifting through data for keywords. Instead, the system allows users to make previously unknown connections between seemingly unrelated terms. In this way, it helps to synthesize new information and further a person’s understanding of a given topic, which is the hallmark of discovery, innovation, and invention. The Biomimetic Search Engine is already revolutionizing how genomics data, the internet’s playable music and video files, and Wikipedia’s ever-growing content are searched and utilized. It is also poised to make inroads into the finance, sports, and health sectors.

FastBit Bitmap Index

FastBit significantly advances the state of the art in searching large datasets. It expands the types of data on which bitmap indexes can be used most efficiently, while at the same time it speeds up search operations on all types of data. It was developed by Kesheng Wu, Arie Shoshani, Ekow Otoo, and Kurt Stockinger of Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division.

FastBit has improved the speed of drug-discovery software at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and improved the matching between web page content and advertisements at Yahoo! Research. A FastBit-enabled grid-based analysis of high-energy physics data received an award from the 2005 International Supercomputer Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, and the work on network traffic analysis received an honorable mention in the High Performance Analytics Challenge at the Supercomputing 2005 conference in Seattle. In short, FastBit contains significant innovations that are well-recognized and have a broad impact in science, technology, and education.

Nanostructured Polymer Electrolyte for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries

Until now, rechargeable battery architectures that include solid electrodes and liquid electrolytes have not advanced far beyond what they were at the birth of the first batteries. That’s beginning to change, thanks to solid-state batteries containing a nanostructured polymer electrolyte. The technology introduces a radically new architecture with a potential to enable electric battery-driven transportation technology. It was developed by Nitash Balsara, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division who also conducts research with the Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. He’s also a professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Chemical Engineering. The technology has been licensed to the start-up company Seeo Inc., located in Berkeley, CA.

The nanostructured polymer electrolyte exhibits high ionic conductivity, but can be engineered to be mechanically rigid, therefore resisting the growth of dendrites when contacted with a lithium metal electrode. Dendrite growth has prevented the commercialization of rechargeable batteries with a lithium metal anode. Batteries made with the nanostructured polymer electrolyte are also inherently safe because they lack liquids and flammable components, which prevent thermal runaway. In addition, products of side reactions cannot circulate and amplify within the cell. Solid-state lithium-ion batteries made possible by Berkeley Lab’s nanostructued polymer electrolyte are expected to meet the energy density goal established by the Department of Energy for electric vehicles — the highest hurdle for battery technology.

The R&D 100 Award-winning technologies were nominated by Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department. All winners of the 2008 award will receive a plaque at R&D Magazine's formal awards banquet in Chicago on October 16.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our website at www.lbl.gov.

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John the Seeker adds this information:

For those interested in FastBit bitmap indexing software, it can be found at https://codeforge.lbl.gov/projects/fastbit/

Additional information about FastBit can be found at http://sdm.lbl.gov/fastbit/

A Stress Meter for Fault Zones

2008-07-09T15:21:00.000-04:00

The Speed of Seismic Waves is a Measure of Stress in Rocks During — and Possibly Before — Earthquakes

BERKELEY, CA – For the first time, scientists from Rice University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have measured — in the field rather than in the laboratory — how changes in stress in rocks affect changes in the speed of seismic waves at depths where earthquakes begin. The measurements could lead to a "stress meter" for better understanding how fault-zone stress is related to earthquakes.

"The goal of our project was to develop a method for measuring stress changes, especially at depths where earthquakes originate," says Fenglin Niu of Rice University's Department of Earth Science. "We call it a seismic stress meter."

Niu is first author of the article reporting the research results, which appears in the 10 July issue of the journal Nature. Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism coordinated the project, and Tom Daley and Ernest Majer of Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division provided the precision instruments which generated and detected the seismic waves.

"Over many years at Parkfield and other sites, Ernie Majer and I worked together to develop a suite of high-precision instruments for field work," says Daley. "One of our goals was to see if our existing cross-well instrumentation would have the sensitivity to measure the pressure changes and associated travel-time changes needed for this experiment."

The research team used the twin boreholes ("wells") of the National Science Foundation's San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) near Parkfield, CA, to send signals from a source one kilometer deep in the pilot hole to a receiver at the same depth in the main hole. At that depth the two SAFOD boreholes are separated by only about five meters, and any change in travel time between them is measured in microseconds.

"The source is a stack of donut-shaped piezoelectric ceramic cylinders that expand when voltage is applied," Daley explains. "The source is suspended in the water that fills the hole, and when it expands it exerts pressure on the water, which exerts pressure on the rock; the seismic wave travels through the rock to the detector, which is in contact with the sides of the main bore hole and measures movement with accelerometers."

The instruments were sensitive enough to detect changes in rock stress a kilometer deep, caused only by changes in the barometric pressure of the atmosphere — a mere change in the weight of the air on the surface.

"To get the required sensitivity we did 'signal stacking,'" Daley says. "The source fires about four times a second, and we averaged every 45 minutes of data, to suppress random noise and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. We collected this data continuously over two separate month-long periods."

During the first month of data collection the team found a consistent relationship between barometric pressure and minute changes in the travel time of seismic waves between the source and the detector. Higher barometric pressure (corresponding to greater stress on the rock) meant less travel time — the seismic waves moved faster because tiny cracks in the rock closed up under pressure.

During the second month of data collection, the quality of the data actually improved, but the researchers detected two anomalous departures from the established relation of barometric pressure to travel time. These excursions corresponded to two earthquakes in the Parkfield region, an area so well instrumented that earthquake magnitude and location, including depth, can be determined with great precision. One earthquake measured magnitude 3, the largest local event during the observation period; the other earthquake measured magnitude 1, but occurred closer to the experiment.

The excursions in the travel-time data began 10 hours before the magnitude 3 event and 2 hours before the magnitude 1 event. In earlier, laboratory-based studies of the relationship of seismic-wave travel times and stress, such "preseismic" changes were related to changes in the properties of microcracks in the rock.

"The same may be the case here," says Daley. "But in fact we do not have a clear physical explanation for these preseismic observations as yet, although they plausibly represent stress changes in the crust. Our goal is to determine if they are repeatable and, if so, to determine the ultimate physical basis. Nevertheless, what we've seen are interesting stress changes associated with earthquakes. It encourages us to continue this kind of observation."

Says Rice's Fenglin Niu, "Detecting a preseismic velocity change is at best only a small step toward reliable earthquake prediction. Before we can supply any useful information before an earthquake, we will need a physical model that can explain when such a velocity change would occur before a quake."

"Preseismic velocity changes observed from active source monitoring at the Parkfield SAFOD drill site," by Fenglin Niu, Paul G. Silver, Thomas M. Daley, Xin Cheng, and Ernest L. Majer, appears in the 10 July issue of Nature and is available online to subscribers at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/nature07111.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our website at http://www.lbl.gov.

Toxins from Techopark Seeped Into St,. Lawrence: Group

2008-07-09T15:08:00.006-04:00

As much as eight million litres of diesel and two tonnes of hazardous PCBs have leaked into a Canadian river according to watchdog group. The report took 4 years to prepare and is by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) which monitors pollution risks in North America.

Edie has a report.

OCEAN WIND POWER MAPS REVEAL POSSIBLE WIND ENERGY SOURCES

2008-07-09T15:07:00.001-04:00

News from NASA :)

WASHINGTON -- Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth's ocean winds could soon gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA's QuikSCAT satellite that reveal ocean areas where winds could produce wind energy.

The new maps have many potential uses including planning the location of offshore wind farms to convert wind energy into electric energy. The research, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, was funded by NASA's Earth Science Division, which works to advance the frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future.

"Wind energy is environmentally friendly. After the initial energy investment to build and install wind turbines, you don't burn fossil fuels that emit carbon," said study lead author Tim Liu, a senior research scientist and QuikSCAT science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Like solar power, wind energy is green energy."

QuikSCAT, launched in 1999, tracks the speed, direction and power of winds near the ocean surface. Data from QuikSCAT, collected continuously by a specialized microwave radar instrument named SeaWinds, also are used to predict storms and enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts.

Wind energy has the potential to provide 10 to 15 percent of future world energy requirements, according to Paul Dimotakis, chief technologist at JPL. If ocean areas with high winds were tapped for wind energy, they could potentially generate 500 to 800 watts of energy per square meter, according to Liu's research. Dimotakis notes
that while this is slightly less than solar energy (which generates about one kilowatt of energy per square meter), wind power can be converted to electricity more efficiently than solar energy and at a lower cost per watt of electricity produced.

According to Liu, new technology has made floating wind farms in the open ocean possible. A number of wind farms are already in operation worldwide. Ocean wind farms have less environmental impact than onshore wind farms, whose noise tends to disturb sensitive wildlife in their immediate area. Also, winds are generally stronger over the ocean than on land because there is less friction over water to slow the winds down - there are no hills or mountains to block the wind's path.

Ideally, offshore wind farms should be located in areas where winds blow continuously at high speeds. The new research identifies such areas and offers explanations for the physical mechanisms that produce the high winds.

An example of one such high-wind mechanism is located off the coast of Northern California near Cape Mendocino. The protruding land mass of the cape deflects northerly winds along the California coast, creating a local wind jet that blows year-round. Similar jets are formed from westerly winds blowing around Tasmania, New Zealand, and Tierra del Fuego in South America, among other locations. Areas with
large-scale, high wind power potential also can be found in regions of the mid-latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where winter storms normally track.

The new QuikSCAT maps, which add to previous generations of QuikSCAT wind atlases, also will be beneficial to the shipping industry by highlighting areas of the ocean where high winds could be hazardous to ships, allowing them to steer clear of these areas.

Scientists use the QuikSCAT data to examine how ocean winds affect weather and climate, by driving ocean currents, mixing ocean waters, and affecting the carbon, heat and water interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere.

JPL manages QuikSCAT for NASA. More information about QuikSCAT here.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov

Let X = X: old galaxies, army space spies, toxic bilge, more

2008-05-30T00:42:00.001-04:00

PODCAST The crew of the Goodship Let X = X take you tripping through the galaxy of science. In this episode: primeval galaxies; U.S. army space surveillance; toxic petrochemical waste in Africa; PLOS: the Public Library of Science. Music by Rochester, NY's "The Window Room".

read more | digg story

Security & Prosperity Partnership Will Effect Energy, Water & Environment

2008-05-28T15:25:00.002-04:00

The 300 policy changes being put into place via the corporate instigated and undemocratic S.P.P. (or Security and Prosperity Partnership), will have far-reaching implications for energy policy and the environment. I am still wading through the information but for anyone who wants to know more here are several sources of information.

Judicial Watch has exposed the Security and Prosperity partnership, via a set of revealing documents they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. These show that the Bush administration and U.S. government's are attempting to unite the U.S., Canada and Mexico through cooperation on federal policies and infrastructure.

The August Review also has a quite thorough article on the SPP and North American Union.

You can also view a selection of videos, many of talks given across Canada concerning the SPP and the NAU via the SPP Information Channel. I am including a embedded video link to that channel below.

Lastly, here is Natural Resources Canada's news release concerning the trilateral SPP meetings and energy policy in Canada. Notice that electricity is mentined and that will include hydroelectricity. Since the SPP seeks to share resources between the US, Canada and Mexico and since the US is the largest consumer of energy and resources, it's pretty obvious who will be doing most of the "Sharing" of Canada's as well as Mexico's water and water power - the United States of America.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Call to Action on World Food Emergency

2008-05-26T21:05:00.003-04:00

fwd'd from ETC Group (Action group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration)
26 May 2008
ETC Group
ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.etcgroup.org

Call to Action on World Food Emergency

On 22 May, International Biodiversity Day, ETC Group joined with civil society and social movements from around the world to launch a "Call to Action on the World Food Emergency." ETC Group is attending the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, 19-30 May 2008.

ETC Group invites you to sign on to the international Call to Action by social movements and civil society on the World Food Emergency and the underlying loss of biodiversity. To read the full statement in English, French and Spanish, go to http://www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency/ .

No More “Failures-as-Usual"!
Historic, systemic failures of governments and international institutions are responsible. Governments will meet at the U.N. FAO Food Summit in Rome 3-5 June and they must begin by accepting their responsibility for today's food emergency and the loss of biodiversity.

The emergency today has its roots in governments' and intergovernmental organisations' failures, among others, to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food and to produce food, especially for domestic markets.

Henry Saragih, international co-ordinator of La Via Campesina said: "This food crisis is the result of the ongoing market liberalisation and the neglect of food production by international institutions and national governments”. Saragih added “This has to change! Peasant and family farmers need policies that protect and stabilize domestic markets and support food production for local and national markets " .

In the midst of collapsing farm, livestock and fish stocks and skyrocketing food and fuel prices, new policies, practices and structures are required to resolve the current food emergency and to prevent future - and greater - tragedies. Governments' and intergovernmental organisations' policies have undermined agricultural productivity and destroyed national food security. This has had a dramatic impact on agricultural biodiversity and its resilient ecosystems that underpin the sustainable production of food from crops and livestock in all regions of the world.

Mana Diakite, USC West Africa declared: ” The push for agrofuels and the so-called new green revolution is threatening our local seeds and livestock breeds and undermining our food sovereignty in the Sahel , as elsewhere.” Diakite added ”We need a new approach that protects us from misguided technologies and invasive markets that are forced on our farmers and livestock keepers and erode our precious agricultural biodiversity .”

Social movements and civil society organisations have joined together to develop a global plan of action for food and agriculture and are willing to discuss this plan with governments and intergovernmental organisations that will be attending the U.N. Food Summit, 3-5 June 2008, in Rome.

We call for, among other demands:

• A State of Emergency: In this crisis peoples and states can call for a State of Emergency and suspend agreements and regulate citizens and corporate activities. They must do so immediately allowing people to take back control of their food systems;

• UN Commission on Food Production, Consumption and Trade: A new inclusive mechanism is needed to replace the UN Task Force. This Commission should have a significant and substantive representation of small-scale food producers and marginalized consumers ;

• No quick fixes: This is a generational emergency which is likely to continue for another generation – long term solutions are required. Governments must not be allowed to repeat the same institutional mistakes and short-term technofix solutions of the past. No more Green Revolutions – long term food sovereignty solutions are needed.

To read the full statement, go to http://www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency/

The statement and global plan of action was prepared by members of the IPC, the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty. The IPC is a facilitation mechanism in which key international social movements and organisations collaborate around the issue of food sovereignty: these include ROPPA, WFFP, WFF, La Via Campesina, and many movements and NGOs in all regions (see: http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/focalpoints.php ). The IPC is coordinating a Parallel Forum to the FAO Food Summit in Rome, 1- 4 June 2008 "Terra Preta: Forum on the Food Crisis, Climate Change, Agrofuels and Food Sovereignty " http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/terrapreta.php .

Copies of the full Civil Society Statement on the World Food Emergency are available in English, French and Spanish here.

To sign the Call to Action statement, please submit your signature by c;icking here and signing at the website.

Ancient Arctic Ice Shelf Break Up Speeds Up - Fastest Melt On Record

2008-05-24T15:27:00.006-04:00

The Arctic ice shelf is disintegrating. Even the thickest and oldest ice, which is 3000 years old and thick as a ten story building, is breaking up along the north coast of Canada, as tracked by the Canadian military and scientists.

BBC has a video on the huge fissures that have been developing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7418041.stm

And over on Thomas Homer-Dixon's page is a time-lapse video captured via sateltite of how the ancient ice is being flushed down the strait between Canada's and Greenland's coasts:
source: www.homerdixon.com

This is the fastest arctic ice melt on record, shocking scientists, according to the BBC.

(ED: Maybe one of the pieces of ice will hit Dixie Lee Ray in the head and knock some sense into her?)

PODCAST: Babbling Bats, Very Fly Cheese, Viral Deli Meat, Death on Line

2008-05-23T14:06:00.005-04:00

Let X = X, your fix of geek chic

Inflatable Space Station

2008-05-11T17:39:00.004-04:00

It may sound like a joke but isn't. Space.com is reporting on a private orbital space station which also happens to be, well, inflatable, of all things!

HELP NOW TO GET CRITICAL BILL ON\ CLIMATE CHANGE PASSED

2008-04-09T22:23:00.005-04:00

Reposted from David Suzuki's blog

WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW TO GET CRITICAL BILL ON GLOBAL WARMING PASSED

Take Action Now!

Please join thousands of concerned citizens from across Canada in helping get a bill now stuck in a parliamentary committee passed.

What’s at stake?

The bill – C-377, the Climate Change Accountability Act -- would set science-based emission reduction targets for Canada.

What’s happening?

The bill is stuck before the House of Commons environment committee. Some members (see partial list below) have been blocking progress by not letting other members of the committee talk. If the filibuster continues, this bill could be killed.

What you can do now

If you want real progress on climate change to happen, let committee members know you want them to end the stalemate and allow the committee to get back to work.

Please call, email, write or visit the following members of the Environment Committee and Government responsible for blocking the work of the Environment Committee. Copy your own Member of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and your local newspaper.

Take Action Now!

show podcast

2008-04-06T04:50:00.004-04:00

Porta oxygen; hi-tech heists; rats help beat adult-onset diabetes

Let X = X

2008-03-22T18:44:00.001-04:00

'Beelze-Toad': Giant Predatory Fossil Frog Found

2008-03-19T08:29:00.005-04:00

The size of a bowling ball, ancient armour-plated frog is dubbed Beelzebufo (devil toad) by scientists. Who says they have no sense of humour?

Graphic by: David Krause, Stony Brook University

A team of researchers, led by Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, has discovered the remains in Madagascar of what may be the largest frog ever to exist.

The 16-inch, 10-pound ancient frog, scientifically named Beelzebufo, or devil frog, links a group of frogs that lived 65 to 70 million years ago with frogs living today in South America.

Discovery of the voracious predatory fossil frog -- reported on-line this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) -- is significant in that it may provide direct evidence of a one-time land connection between Madagascar, the largest island off Africa's southeast coast, and South America.

To identify Beelzebufo and determine its relationship to other frogs, Krause collaborated with fossil frog experts Susan Evans, lead author of the PNAS article, and Marc Jones of the University College London. The authors concluded that the new frog represents the first known occurrence of a fossil group in Madagascar with living representatives in South America.

"Beelzebufo appears to be a very close relative of a group of South American frogs known as 'ceratophyrines,' or 'pac-man' frogs, because of their immense mouths," said Krause, whose research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The ceratophryines are known to camouflage themselves in their surroundings, then ambush predators.

"The finding presents a real puzzle biogeographically, particularly because of the poor fossil record of frogs on southern continents," said Krause. "We're asking ourselves, 'What's a 'South American' frog doing half-way around the world, in Madagascar?'"

He said that because frogs "are not adept at dispersal across marine barriers, and since the few fossil frogs that are known from the Late Cretaceous in Africa are unrelated to Beelzebufo, one possibility is that there was a land connection between South America and Madagascar during that period."

Some geoscientists have suggested a lingering physical link between South America and Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous Period -- a link involving Antarctica. Antarctica in the Late Cretaceous was much warmer than it is today.

"The occurrence of this frog in Madagascar and its relatives' existence in South America provides strong evidence that the supercontinent Gondwana 'disassembled' during the latest part of the Cretaceous," said Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

Krause and colleagues have hypothesized this connection based on previous discoveries of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs, crocodiles and mammals in Madagascar that were very closely related to forms in South America.

Beelzebufo is one of the largest frogs on record and was perhaps the largest frog ever to exist. The size and robustness of its bones and its relatedness to the rotund South American forms indicates it was also probably the heaviest frog to exist.

The size, girth, appearance, and predatory nature of the frog prompted its discoverers to call it the "armored frog from hell." They derived the genus name from the Greek word for devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin word for toad (bufo). The species name, ampinga, means "shield."

The largest living frog today is the goliath frog of West Africa, which attains lengths of 12.5 inches and weights of 7.2 pounds. The largest frog alive on Madagascar today, at just over four inches long, "would have been a nice hors d'oeuvre for Beelzebufo," Krause said.

Since the discovery of the first bones found in northwestern Madagascar in 1993, Krause and his team have gathered some 75 fossil fragments of Beelzebufo. Through the accumulation of these fossils, the team has been able to reconstruct the frog's skeleton, including nearly the entire skull.

Not only was the frog huge, it was powerful in design, had a protective shield, an extremely wide mouth and powerful jaws. These features made Beelzebufo capable of killing lizards and other small vertebrates, perhaps even hatchling dinosaurs.

The research was also funded by the National Geographic Society.

Kenyan SMS's Take & Save Lives

2008-02-29T23:05:00.005-05:00

Kenya's civil turmoil has become very tech-saavy. According to the Globe and Mail, some teenagers in the now volatile African country are using text messages to help plan hits on rival groupstext "encouraging them to deal with enemies "the Rwanda way"".

The government considered blocking cell phone frequencies to prevent them being misused this way. But in the end decided more harm would be done by blocking texting of messages between cell phones because people were also using the popular devices to get relatives to rescue them.

First Lawsuit re: Hastening Death to Harvest Organs

2008-02-27T16:43:00.003-05:00

The New York Times hasa report on a sick and disabled man's surgeon being prosecuted for adminstering drugs to hasten the man's death so that his organs could be harvested to save other lives. Hopefully justice is served and a good legal precedent against this sort of horrible possibility (killing someone off to harvest their organs) is set asa result of the case!

INTERNATIONAL SOLAR MISSION TO END FOLLOWING STELLAR PERFORMANCE

2008-02-22T22:20:00.001-05:00

News from NASA

WASHINGTON - The joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission
to study the sun and its influence on surrounding space is likely to
cease operations in the next few months. The venerable spacecraft,
which has lasted more than 17 years or almost four times its expected
mission lifetime, is succumbing to the harsh environment of space.

Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above
and below the poles of the sun. The reams of data Ulysses returned
have forever changed the way scientists view our star and its
effects.

"I remember when we got those first pictures of Ulysses floating out
of the space shuttle Discovery's payload bay back in October of 1990
and thinking we had a great five years ahead of us," said Ed Massey,
Ulysses project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. "I never dared think that we would be receiving
invaluable science data on a near continuous basis for more than 17
years. Ulysses has set the bar on solar science data collection quite
high."

Science findings and discoveries from the mission were numerous and
unprecedented. Examples include taking the first direct measurements
of interstellar dust particles and interstellar helium atoms in the
solar system and the discovery that the magnetic field leaving the
sun is balanced across latitudes.

"The data and science output of this mission truly deserves to be
named after the legendary explorer in Greek mythology," said Arik
Posner, Ulysses program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "My
compliments go out to the international team of scientists and
engineers who built a spaceship and instrument payload that is highly
sensitive, yet durable enough that it withstood the most extreme
conditions in the solar system, including a polar passage of the
giant planet Jupiter."

Since its Jupiter flyby in 1992, Ulysses has been in a six-year orbit
around the sun. Its long path through space carries it out to
Jupiter's orbit and back. The farther it ventures from the sun, the
colder the spacecraft becomes. If it drops to 36 degrees Fahrenheit,
the spacecraft's hydrazine fuel will freeze. This has not been a
problem in the past because Ulysses carries heaters to maintain a
workable onboard temperature.

The spacecraft is powered by the decay of a radioactive isotope. Over
its 17-plus years, the power has been steadily dropping. The
spacecraft no longer can run all of its communications, heating and
scientific equipment simultaneously. "We expect certain parts of the
spacecraft to reach 36 degrees pretty soon," said Richard Marsden,
ESA project scientist and mission manager. This temperature drop will
block the fuel pipes, making the spacecraft impossible to maneuver.

The NASA/ESA project team approved a plan to temporarily shut off the
main spacecraft's X- band transmitter. This would release 60 watts of
power, which could be channeled to the science instruments and the
heater. The team planned to turn the transmitter back on when data
was to be transmitted back to Earth. This would have made it possible
to run Ulysses for up to another two years.

Unfortunately, during the first test of this approach in January, the
power supply to the radio transmitter failed to turn back on.
Engineers believe the fault can be traced to the transmitter's power
supply, meaning that the extra energy they hoped to gain cannot be
routed to the heater and science instruments. "The decision to switch
the transmitter off was not taken lightly. It was the only way to
continue the science mission," Marsden said.

After many attempts, the Ulysses project team now considers it highly
unlikely that the X-band transmitter will be recovered. As a result,
the spacecraft has lost its ability to send large quantities of
scientific data back to Earth and is facing the gradual freezing of
its fuel lines. The team plans to continue operating the spacecraft
in its reduced capacity, using the alternate S-band transmitter, for
as long as they can over the next few weeks.

"We will squeeze the very last drops of science out of it that we
can," Marsden said. "Ulysses is a terrific old workhorse. It has
produced great science and lasted much longer than we ever thought it
would."

The Ulysses spacecraft was built by Dornier Systems of Germany for
ESA. NASA provided the launch and the upper stage boosters. The U.S.
Department of Energy, Washington, supplied the generator that powers
the spacecraft; science instruments were provided by both U.S. and
European investigators. The spacecraft is operated from JPL by a
joint NASA/ESA team and has employed NASA's Deep Space Network for
communications.

More information about NASA's Ulysses mission is available here.

Not Quite Entirely Unlike Our Sun & Earth

2008-02-20T13:44:00.005-05:00

Scientific American has a podcast on how earth-like planets could be forming around stars similar like our Sun! Interesting stuff.

6,000 deaths predicted due to increased heat waves; swifter action called for on climate change

2008-02-20T12:54:00.005-05:00

Britain and Europe have no monopoly on climate change and the wilder weather extremes it causes; from more avalanches in North America to heat-stroke deaths in Europe Health Effects of Climate Change in Britain,a new report by British scientists, is a wake-up call for everyone on the planet.

check out these two stories on Edie, for more information:

1. 6,000 could die in severe heatwave by 2017
Source: www.edie.net

2. Prince urges international action on climate change
Source: www.edie.net

Statins and Stupidity: Are Statins Causing Memory Loss in Women?

2008-02-13T13:53:00.006-05:00

Statins are drugs that lower cholesterol. A New York Times health reporter weighs in on side-effects of the widely-prescribed medications: some doctors have said that statins make you stupid and forgetful.

A molecule of Lovastatin - the first statin marketed.

The article she's talking about is by another health reporter over on the Wall Street Journal. Here's a quote from that article:

"This drug makes women stupid," Orli Etingin, vice chairman of medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, declared at a recent luncheon discussion sponsored by Project A.L.S. to raise awareness of gender issues and the brain. Dr. Etingin, who is also founder and director of the Iris Cantor Women's Health Center in New York, told of a typical patient in her 40s, unable to concentrate or recall words. Tests found nothing amiss, but when the woman stopped taking Lipitor, the symptoms vanished. When she resumed taking Lipitor, they returned.

Medical News has an entoire section on statins.

New Solar Cycle May Be Beginning

2007-12-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

In this age of satellites and cell phones, bursts of solar storms effect us here on earth as never before. All manner of things, from the Northern Lights to telecommunications, air traffic, power grids and GPS systems are affected by the cyles of the sun.

Now, physicists specializing in studying the sun, suspect a new solar cycle is upon us. NASA's David Hathaway says that a new patch of magnetic activity on the our star's surface could be the beginnings of a sunspot that kicks off the next solar cycle. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has pictures.

The new cycle would peak between 2011 or 2012. We are currently at a solar minimum. The last burst of activity was from 2002-2003, when furious solar storms played havoc with many of our telecommunications and power grid systems here on Earth.

Diagram: NOAA Sec, Boulder Co, and Science @ NASA

NASA Over the Moon About New Lunar Institute

2007-10-31T09:23:00.000-04:00

According to NASA's newswire, NASA will establish a US-wide Lunar Science Institute to study science about the moon, and science on the moon:

WASHINGTON - NASA has announced it intends to form something it's calling a lunar science institute. The research effort, will feature dispersed teams across the US. It will help lead NASA's research activities for future lunar science missions.

Named the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), the effort will be managed from NASA's Ames Research Center, in Moffet Field, California, which also manages a similar distributed NASA Astrobiology Institute.

NLSI research teams will look in to current topics in basic lunar science, and perhaps astronomical, solar and Earth science investigations that could be performed from the moon. They also will offer a quick response capability for lunar science support to NASA's Exploration initiative.

The new moon research institute is expected to be up and running by March 1, 2008. NLSI will augment other, already established lunar science investigations funded by NASA by encouraging the formation of interdisciplinary research teams that are larger than those currently at work in lunar science.

"I am excited about NLSI," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "As the National Academy of Sciences has told us, the science to be done at the moon and from the moon are of high value, and NLSI will help us coordinate and expand a number of in-depth
research efforts in lunar science and other fields that can benefit from human and robotic missions that are part of NASA's exploration plans."

NASA is currently searching for a NLSI director. Most work done under NLSI's banner will take place at other NASA centers, universities and non-profit research groups around the nations. These groups will be competitively selected after scientific peer review.

Initially, NASA will select four or five teams for grants of $1 to $2 million each for three years, with renewals of up to five years. NASA will solicit team proposals in a 2008 NASA Research Announcement.

By late 2008, about 50 researchers around the U.S. could be working under NLSI's banner. By 2010, that number could double. Funds for this effort are part of the president's proposed 2008 NASA budget for the lunar science project within the planetary research program, now under consideration in Congress.

"We're delighted NASA Ames was chosen to lead this exciting new lunar science research office," said S. Pete Worden, Ames center director. "This will complement the agency's ongoing lunar research and further the implementation of the nation's exploration efforts."

The lunar science institute is modeled after the highly successful NASA Astrobiology Institute. Established in 1997, the NASA Astrobiology Institute promotes, conducts and leads integrated multidisciplinary astrobiology research in addition to training a new generation of astrobiology researchers.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, please visit:
http://www.nasa.gov

Statistics of Voting Systems; IgNobel Winners; Islam in Space, Black & White Moon

2007-10-10T07:49:00.000-04:00

Today's "Put on Your Thinking Cap Edition" of CKCU's science show is available live via webcast and features a look at the statistics behind Proportional Representation, or MMP, and our current method of voting here in Ontario - "Majority Rule, or First past the Post". Also, the show takes a whirl through the winners of this year's "Silly Science Oscars", as I think of them - the IgNobels. These are awards for science that first makes you crack up laughing, (or at least smirk) and then makes you think. Let X = X has been tracking these awards, which come out of venerable old Harvard U, since their inception, way back in 1991. This year's winners range from From giving viagara to hamsters to reduce jet lag, to bottomless bowls of soup for obesity research. And more! That's on today's Let X = X! So tune in at 9:15 am.

Meanwhile in web exclusives:

NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn has yet more information on Saturn and its moons, including data pointing at why one of the ringed planet's moons has one side that's white and the other black. And no it's not a shadow. read all about it on BBC's science pages. ...Hey - I just woke up as I was slaving in the studio for you 'til late last night for today's show. You are safer with BBC than my brain, at last until it wakes up!

And Malaysia's first astronaut launches into space today. Back in 2006, the populous country held a conference to look at issues that would be faced by Islamic astronauts.

Mission to Pluto Digs Up New Dirt on Jupiter

2007-10-09T13:54:00.000-04:00

Here is a new report from NASA on their mission to Pluto which has just past Jupiter, yielding lots of cool new information about the giant.

NASA SPACECRAFT SEES CHANGES IN JUPITER SYSTEM

LAUREL, Md. - NASA's New Horizons spacecraft provided a new bird's-eye
view of the dynamic Jupiter system as it traveled through the
planet's orbit on Feb. 28.

New Horizons used Jupiter's gravity to boost its speed and shave three
years off its trip to Pluto. Although the eighth spacecraft to visit
Jupiter, New Horizons' combination of trajectory, timing and
technology allowed it to explore details never before observed.

The spacecraft revealed lightning near the Jupiter's poles, the life
cycle of fresh ammonia clouds, boulder-size clumps speeding through
the planet's faint rings, the structure inside volcanic eruptions on
its moon Io, and the path of charged particles traversing the
previously unexplored length of the planet's long, magnetic tail.

"The Jupiter encounter was successful beyond our wildest dreams," said
Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizons mission, NASA
Headquarters, Washington. "Not only did it prove our spacecraft and
put it on course to reach Pluto in 2015, it was a chance for us to
take sophisticated instruments to places in the Jovian system where
other spacecraft could not go. It returned important data that adds
tremendously to our understanding of the solar system's largest
planet and its moons, rings and atmosphere."

The New Horizons team presented its latest, most detailed analyses of
those data Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society's Division
for Planetary Sciences meeting in Orlando, Fla. Results also will
appear in a special section of the Oct. 12 issue of the journal
Science.

From January through June, New Horizons' seven science instruments
made more than 700 separate observations of the Jovian system.
Jupiter's weather was high on the list, as New Horizons' visible
light, infrared and ultraviolet remote-sensing instruments probed the
planet's atmosphere for data on cloud structure and composition.

Instruments saw clouds form from ammonia welling up from the lower
atmosphere. Heat-induced lighting strikes in the polar regions also
were observed. This was the first polar lighting ever seen beyond
Earth, demonstrating that heat moves through water clouds at
virtually all latitudes across Jupiter.

New Horizons made the most-detailed size and speed measurements yet of
"waves" that run the width of the planet and indicate violent storm
activity below. Additionally, New Horizons snapped the first close-up
images of the Little Red Spot, gathering new information on storm
dynamics. The spot is a nascent storm about half the size of
Jupiter's larger Great Red Spot, or about 70 percent of Earth's
diameter.

The spacecraft captured the clearest images to date of the tenuous
Jovian ring system, showing clumps of debris that may indicate a
recent impact inside the rings or some more exotic phenomenon. Movies
made from New Horizons images offer an unprecedented look at ring
dynamics, showing the tiny inner moons Metis and Adrastea shepherding
the materials around the rings. A search for smaller moons inside the
rings, and possible new sources of the dusty material, found no
bodies wider than a mile.

The mission's investigations of Jupiter's four largest moons focused
on Io, the closest to Jupiter, which has active volcanoes that blast
tons of material into the Jovian magnetosphere and beyond. New
Horizons spied 11 different volcanic plumes of varying size, three of
which were seen for the first time. One, a spectacular 200-mile-high
eruption rising above the volcano Tvashtar, provided a unique
opportunity to trace plume structure and motion. New Horizons' global
map of Io's surface confirms the moon's status as the solar system's
most active body, showing more than 20 geological changes since the
Galileo Jupiter orbiter provided the last close-up look in 2001.

New Horizons' flight down Jupiter's magnetic tail offered a look at
the vast region dominated by the planet's strong magnetic field.
Specifically observing the fluxes of charged particles that flow
hundreds of millions of miles beyond the giant planet, spacecraft
particle detectors saw evidence that tons of material from Io's
volcanoes move down the tail in large, dense, slow-moving blobs.

Designed, built and operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., New Horizons lifted off in January
2006. The fastest spacecraft ever launched, it reached Jupiter in
just 13 months. New Horizons is now approximately halfway between the
orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, more than 743 million miles from Earth.
It will fly past Pluto and its moons in July 2015, then head deeper
into the Kuiper belt of icy, rocky objects on the planetary frontier.
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program of
medium-class spacecraft exploration projects.

For more details on the findings, visit:

Nasa's New Horizon's Mission page is here.

Toronto YouTube Gathering at the Ontario Science Centre

2007-10-05T15:24:00.001-04:00

Youtubers from all over are converging on Toronto to share information about video making and video technology at the Ontario Science Centre. Video by zerocharisma25!

Gravity, Vacuums, & Space Toilets

2007-10-05T15:00:00.001-04:00

Astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency speaks about design and use of restroom facilities for space expeditions. You'll never ever take gravity for granted again! :-D.

Science, as ever, is silly and scary.

In other Canadian science news there will be a Canadian YouTube meetup on 888 at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. Check out the 888torontomeetup channel on Youtube!

Video shot at the Ontario Science Centre, in Toronto, by videochick770

Summer Smorgasbord "Lite" edition of Let X = X.

2007-10-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

PODCAST: Fish Disease Scourges Great Lakes; Dark Chocolate Fights Hypertension

Geekcake and Forest Ravagers

2007-09-25T14:54:00.003-04:00

Over on Wired, in the midst of an article on a geek-heavy impending TV season, McG and Hollywood have acknowledged the coolness and cache and status of being geek.Now who doesn't want to be like Bill Gates?"

Me... and a lot of other women in the world, geeky or otherwise. Some of us would, however, enjoy looking at his younger self. So, as promised on the show here, for either your delectation or amusement, is a little Geekcake for the ladies.

I take no responsibility for these photos showing a much younger Bill Gates, with a come-hither knowing look in his eye, variously draped suggestively over a monitor, an office desk, flinging discs at would-be voyeurs, and with a slight smirk holding the "Once and Future Disc to Rule them All". *ahem* No, I did not take these - though, boy! would I have loved to be the proverbial fly on the wall when they were taken! They are from a magazine photospread from the 1980's. Contrary to a persistent rumour they are not from Teen Beat. ;)

****************************************************

For our show listeners much less cool than the Fab Four, here are some links to currently world-shaking beetles.

The ASIAN LONGHORN BEETLE.

Some good links over at the LEFT COAST LEANER on the MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLE.

CBC has MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLE THREATENS ALBERTA'S FORESTS.

BUT IS ALBERTA OVERREACTING TO THE PINE BEETLE THREAT? At least one environmental scientist thinks so.

The Canadian Forest Service has info on the government's Mountain Pine Beetle Project.
And the NRC conference on Science, Technology & the Economy.

Greenhouse Gas Methane Emissions Bubble Over in Alaskan Lake

2007-09-16T21:34:00.000-04:00

All the furor over global warming and green house gas emissions focuses on just one of a number of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, or CO2. But methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more efficient at trapping heat than CO2 is one you'll rarely hear the greenhouse gas naysayers mention.

University of Alaska @ Fairbanks associate professor Katey Walter is a biogeochemist and linologist - that's someone who studies lakes, specialized on the biological and geological chemistry of the earth. Her specialty is methan emmission in lakes around the world, from Siberia to Alaska. She recently brought NPR radio reporters to one such lake, and found a surprising amount of escaping methane bubbling up form the bottom of one Alaskan lake.

Here is the report she posted on U of AF's website:

Last month, UAF researcher Katey Walter brought a National Public Radio crew to Alaska’s North Slope, hoping to show them examples of what happens when methane is released when permafrost thaws beneath lakes.

When they reached their destination, Walter and the crew found even more than they bargained for: a lake violently boiling with escaping methane.

“It was cold, wet and windy. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a helicopter and paddled out to a huge methane plume in the middle of the lake with no idea what to expect, how strong the bubbling plume would be, whether or not our raft would stay afloat, how dangerous it would be to breath the gas,” said Walter, an assistant professor in UAF’s Institute of Northern Engineering and International Arctic Research Center. “The violent streams of bubbles made the lake appear as if it were boiling, but the water was pretty cold.

A story on the field excursion will air on NPR’s afternoon newsmagazine "All Things Considered" at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, 2007.

Walter studies methane emissions from arctic lakes, especially the connection between thawing permafrost and climate change. As permafrost around a lake’s edges thaws, the organic material in it--dead plants and animals--can enter the lake bottom, where bacteria convert it to methane, which bubbles into the atmosphere, sometimes in a spectacular fashion.

Walter said this summer’s fieldwork indicates that methane hotspots, such as the one she and the crew experienced, can come from various sources, not just thawing permafrost. Her next goal is to identify and quantify the sources of the methane hotspots around Alaska.

“It is unlikely that this methane plume was related to permafrost thaw,” said Walter, adding that the methane boiling out of the lake was more likely related to natural gas seepage. “Should large quantities of methane be released from methane hydrates, for instance, in association with permafrost thaw, then we could have large sudden increases in atmospheric methane with potentially large affects on global temperatures.”

Walter’s project is one of many at UAF happening as part of the International Polar Year, an international event that will focus research efforts and public attention on the Earth’s polar regions.

Dark Web Project On Lookout for Terrorists

2007-09-16T20:58:00.000-04:00

from National Science Foundation, Sept. 10th, 2007:

Terrorists and extremists have set up shop on the Internet, using it to recruit new members, spread propaganda and plan attacks across the world. The size and scope of these dark corners of the Web are vast and disturbing. But in a non-descript building in Tucson, a team of computational scientists are using the cutting-edge technology and novel new approaches to track their moves online, providing an invaluable tool in the global war on terror.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies, Hsinchun Chen and his Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona have created the Dark Web project, which aims to systematically collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web.

This is no small undertaking. The speed, ubiquity, and potential anonymity of Internet media--email, web sites, and Internet forums--make them ideal communication channels for militant groups and terrorist organizations. As a result, terrorists groups and their followers have created a vast presence on the Internet. A recent report estimates that there are more than 5,000 Web sites created and maintained by known international terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, the Iraqi insurgencies, and many home-grown terrorist cells in Europe. Many of these sites are produced in multiple languages and can be hidden within innocuous-looking Web sites.

Because of its vital role in coordinating terror activities, analyzing Web content has become increasingly important to the intelligence agencies and research communities that monitor these groups, yet the sheer amount of material to be analyzed is so great that it can quickly overwhelm traditional methods of monitoring and surveillance.

This is where the Dark Web project comes in. Using advanced techniques such as Web spidering, link analysis, content analysis, authorship analysis, sentiment analysis and multimedia analysis, Chen and his team can find, catalogue and analyze extremist activities online. According to Chen, scenarios involving vast amounts of information and data points are ideal challenges for computational scientists, who use the power of advanced computers and applications to find patterns and connections where humans can not.

One of the tools developed by Dark Web is a technique called Writeprint, which automatically extracts thousands of multilingual, structural, and semantic features to determine who is creating 'anonymous' content online. Writeprint can look at a posting on an online bulletin board, for example, and compare it with writings found elsewhere on the Internet. By analyzing these certain features, it can determine with more than 95 percent accuracy if the author has produced other content in the past. The system can then alert analysts when the same author produces new content, as well as where on the Internet the content is being copied, linked to or discussed.

Dark Web also uses complex tracking software called Web spiders to search discussion threads and other content to find the corners of the Internet where terrorist activities are taking place. But according to Chen, sometimes the terrorists fight back.

"They can put booby-traps in their Web forums," Chen explains, "and the spider can bring back viruses to our machines." This online cat-and-mouse game means Dark Web must be constantly vigilant against these and other counter-measures deployed by the terrorists.

Despite the risks, Dark Web is producing tangible results in the global war on terror. The project team recently completed a study of online stories and videos designed to help train terrorists in how to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Understanding what information is being spread about IED methods and where in the world it is being downloaded can improve countermeasures that are developed to thwart them.

Dark Web is also a major research testbed for understanding the propaganda, ideology, communication, fundraising, command and control, and recruitment and training of terrorist groups. The Dark Web team has used the tools at their disposal to explore the content and impact of materials relating to "virtual imams" on the Internet, as well as terrorist training and weapons manuals.

Dark Web's capabilities are also being used to study the online presence of extremist groups and other social movement organizations. Chen sees applications for this Web mining approach for other academic fields.

"What we are doing is using this to study societal change," Chen says. "Evidence of this change is appearing online, and computational science can help other disciplines better understand this change."

Firewall Needed As Viagara Zombie Army Strikes Pharma Giant

2007-09-15T22:34:00.000-04:00

Computer security experts with Support Intelligence, tracked down piles of spam emails about Viagara, Valium, penis enlargements and other popular spam topics, to computers at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Pfizer manufactures Viagara, an erectile dysfunction drug.

The spam spewing from the company's computers is an indication that Phizer's internal system has been badly compromised, this time by a botnet, or zombie army. Bots are pieces of malicious code, also known as malware - small computer programs which allow a computer to be taken over and turned into a spamming device. Wired also notes that Pfizer reported 3 serious security breaches this summer. One involved an employees laptop, according to the pharma giant. The Viagara spam is not part of their official marketing campaign for the popular drug. For some reason, Pfizer has refused to speak with either Wired or the computer security company, who alerted Pfizer to the problem and tried to sell them their services to correct it.

2007-09-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

Solar Energy; Directed Energy Weapons

2007-08-30T17:57:00.001-04:00

Cnet's news blog has an interesting piece on directed energy weapons in the form of laser nosed aircraft. You can see a picture of the snub-nosed plane equipped with chemically-induced weapons here. Interested in more peaceful uses of energy? They also have a small item about solar cell manufacturers.

Reducing the Internet's Energy Consumption

2007-08-28T02:07:00.001-04:00

The Climate Savers Initiative and other projects aim to reduce the 61 billion kilowatt-hours or 1.5% of total US energy consumption, equivalent to 15 power plants worth of electrical energy that was used to power the Internet in 2006 (that's $4.5 billion worth of hydro).

read more | digg story

Bush Administration Declares War on Mountains and the People Who Live There

2007-08-28T01:05:00.001-04:00

Wired has a science feature on the occupational safety horrors of mountain top mining. In one US mountaintop coal-mining town, the well is poisoned and no one lives past 55. :-(

read more | digg story

Let there Be Light:: the Sweet Science of Triboluminescence

2007-08-27T23:41:00.000-04:00

Science, dear readers, can be sweet. Literally.

You can actually generate light using just your teeth and a Lifesaver. But only one flavour will work (my favorite when I was a child) wintergreen. Read on!

This happens through a phenomenon known as triboluminescence, which is the mechanical generation of light energy, through the breakdown of chemical bonds caused by the physical fracture of a substance. There are two other names for the phenomenon: mechanoluminescence and fractoluminescence (a part of fracto-emission) - luminescence (light emission) from rubbing, mechanical action and fracture.

Mad Science has this edible experiment which kids and teens may like to perform at home.

Dr. Linda Sweeting is a chemist at Towson University in Baltimore, MD. You can read her essay on triboluminescence and see some cool pics of what happens when you smash wintergreen lifesavers with a hammer in the dark.

Increased Tropical Rainfall Caused By Global Warming

2007-08-27T18:30:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON - NASA scientists have detected the first signs that
tropical rainfall is on the rise, using the longest and most complete
data record available.

The international scientific community assembled a 27-year global
record of rainfall from satellite and ground-based instruments. The
researchers found the rainiest years between 1979 and 2005 occurred
primarily after 2001. The wettest year was 2005, followed by 2004,
2003, 2002 and 1998. The study appeared in the August 1 issue of the
American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. The rainfall
increase was concentrated over tropical oceans, with a slight decline
over land.

"When we look at the whole planet over almost three decades, the total
amount of rain falling has changed very little. But in the tropics,
where nearly two-thirds of all rain falls, there has been an increase
of 5 percent," said lead author Guojun Gu, a research scientist at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Climate scientists predict that a warming trend in Earth's atmosphere
and surface temperatures would produce an accelerated recycling of
water between land, sea and air. Warmer temperatures increase the
evaporation of water from the ocean and land and allow air to hold
more moisture. Eventually, clouds form that produce rain and snow.

"A warming climate is the most plausible cause of this observed trend
in tropical rainfall," said co-author Robert F. Adler, senior
scientist at Goddard's Laboratory for Atmospheres. Adler and Gu are
now working on a detailed study of the relationship between surface
temperatures and rainfall patterns to investigate the possible link
further.

Obtaining a global view of our planet's rainfall patterns is a
challenge. Only since the satellite era have regular estimates of
rainfall over oceans been available to supplement the long-term, but
land-limited record from rain gauges. Recently, the many different
land- and space-based data have been merged into a global record: the
Global Precipitation Climatology Project, organized under the World
Climate Research Program.

Using this global record, the scientists identified a small upward
trend in overall tropical rainfall since 1979. To assess whether this
pattern was a long-term trend rather than natural year-to-year
variability, they removed the effects of the two natural phenomena
that change rainfall: the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation and large
volcanic eruptions.

El Ni?o is a cyclical warming of the ocean waters in the central and
eastern tropical Pacific that generally occurs every three to seven
years and alters weather patterns worldwide. Volcanoes that loft
debris into the upper troposphere and stratosphere create
globe-circling bands of aerosol particles that slow the formation of
precipitation by increasing the number of small cloud drops and
temporarily shielding the planet from sunlight. The result lowers
surface temperatures and evaporation that fuels rainfall. Two such
eruptions - El Chicon in Mexico and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines
- occurred during the 27-year period.

The scientists found that during El Ni?o years, total tropical
rainfall did not change significantly, but more rain fell over oceans
than usual. During the two years following each volcanic eruption,
overall tropical rainfall was reduced by about 5 percent. With these
effects removed from the rainfall record, the long-term trend appears
more clearly in the rainfall data both over land and over the ocean.

According to Adler, evidence for the rainfall trend is holding as more
data come in. The latest numbers for 2006 show another record-high
year for tropical rainfall, tying 2005 as the rainiest year. Adler's
research group at NASA produces the Global Precipitation Climatology
Project's monthly rainfall updates.

"The next step toward firmly establishing this initial indication of a
long-term tropical rainfall trend is to continue to lengthen and
improve our data record," said Adler, who is project scientist of the
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), a joint effort between
NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The satellite's
three primary instruments are providing the most detailed view of
rainfall ever provided from space. Since 1997, Adler's group has been
incorporating the mission's rainfall data into the global rainfall
record.

NASA plans to extend the success of monitoring rainfall over the
tropics to the entire globe with the Global Precipitation Measurement
mission, scheduled for launch in 2013. This international project
will measure both rain and snow around the world.

For related images and more information about this story, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/rainfall_increase.html

List of Non-Lethal Weapons

2007-08-22T00:31:00.000-04:00

by Ingrid Lombardo, CNS, Monterrey Institute:
excerpted from excellent article at http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/070608.htm

Active Denial System
(a.k.a. Directed Energy Beam)

* highly focused, electromagnetic wave beam
* heats up top 1/64th inch of skin
* produces intense burning sensation for duration of stimulus
* does not actually burn skin
* symptoms disappear when subject moves out of contact with beam

Blunt Projectiles

* provide alternative to rubber bullets
* include softer, flatter bullets, beanbags, sponges
* designed to spread out impact
* designed not to damage eyes

Calmatives

* drugs that can calm an aggressive individual or crowd
* considering psychiatric drugs, such as Prozac and Valium
* considering "club" and "date rape" drugs, such as GHB and Ketamine

Giant Webs

* durable, Kevlar nets
* designed to halt vehicles, entangle targets

Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation (HEMI)
(a.k.a. Taser)

* generates an electro-magnetic current
* passes into body through darts, wires, or direct contact
* causes involuntary contraction of skeletal muscles
* body loses posture for duration of stimulus
* products currently in use are M26 and X26 Taser

Malodorants
(a.k.a. "stink bomb")

* repellent smells that quickly clear area
* cause vomiting, disorientation
* smells include vomit, burnt hair, sewage, and rotting flesh

Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) Spray
(a.k.a. "pepper spray")

* extracted from capsicum pepper plant
* organic, FDA-approved
* available without prescription in U.S.
* causes severe and immediate burning upon contact with face, nose, and eyes

Sprayable Antitraction Gel
(a.k.a. Mobility Denial System)

* creates surface 10 times as slippery as ice
* surface impossible to drive, walk, or climb on
* non-toxic, biodegradable
* dries up in approximately 12 hours

News Brief: Non-Lethal Weapons.

2007-08-22T00:24:00.000-04:00

In honour of the SPP protests in Montebello, I'd like to draw attention to this interesting weapons technology piece published by the Centre for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, on Non-Lethal Weapons, sought after by the Pentagon and other military and security groups.

Hurricane Dean: pictures and links

2007-08-20T15:33:00.000-04:00

Information about Hurricane Dean on US's National Hurricane Centre. The fierce tropical cyclone made "Picture of the Day" at IOD.
NOAA has more information on hurricanes here.

NASA also has a Hurricane Page.

US Scientists Make Ultra-Promising Carbon-Nanotube Solar Power Breakthrough

2007-08-03T21:30:00.000-04:00

Cool & sexy news from the chemical front! I know I know - I'm supposed to be taking the month off.

But I tripped over this today and just had to share the good news!! This is too cool. :)

Imagine DIY power stations that use solar cells that you run off on your printer. Seriously!

U.S. researchers have discovered a method to paint or print solar cells on paper of thin plastic sheets.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) researchers have found a way to make solar cells out of carbon nanotubes. They say this hold promise for inexpensive organic polymer-based solar cells technology.

They hope someday that people can just print off a solar cell and stick it wherever you need to generate power. Of course it's a bit more complicated than that but the scientists do not believe the process will be too complex.

The paper, entitled “Fullerene single wall carbon nanotube complex for polymer bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells,” made the cover of the June 21, 2007 issue Journal of Materials Chemistry (a publcation of the Royal Society of Chemistry).

Lead researcher and author Dr. Somenath Mitra, is professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences.

“The process is simple" says Mitra. "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations. Developing organic solar cells from polymers, however, is a cheap and potentially simpler alternative."

Mitra and fellow researchers "foresee a great deal of interest in our work because solar cells can be inexpensively printed or simply painted on exterior building walls and/or roof tops. Imagine some day driving in your hybrid car with a solar panel painted on the roof, which is producing electricity to drive the engine. The opportunities are endless. ”

tech fixes in process

2007-07-18T12:09:00.000-04:00

UPDATE:

Due to technical difficulties I have been unable to post the show. Big changes are afoot - Jon has left the show for Winnipeg, for a start. I hope to have things straightened out and the shows online by October 1st.

During August Let X = X is going into re-run mode - I am reairing shows from January 2007.

-----------earlier post-----------------------

Hello to all of CKCU's loyal listeners and any new ones! Thanks for tuning in this morning. I am receiving reports that we had technical glitches with our streaming webcast this morning during the show. The show broadcast was fine and I heard it on the radio when I was monitoring it.

No worries - I will be uploading the show and posting a link to it, for anyone who was trying to hear it via streaming audio. :)

In the long run I suppose this is good because it will light a fire under me to get the shows uploaded, which I wanted to do anyway!

Deep Underground Lab in the Works for NSF & UC-Berkely

2007-07-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

Diagram credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

Canada has SNO in Sudbury - no, not the white cold stuff - SNO stands for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. A lot of universities are associated with the research facility. Carleton U has own SNO site.

Strangely, the US does not have a similar facility, known as a DUSEL, or Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.

But that's about to change! A review panel of the US's National Science Foundation, or NSF, included outside experts from relevant science and engineering communities and from supporting fields such as human and environmental safety, underground construction and operations, large project management, and education and outreach. Scientists from Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada also served on the panel. The review process included site visits by panelists to all four locations, and two meetings to review the information, debate and vote on which--if any--of the proposals would be recommended for funding.

The concept of the DUSEL grew out of the need for interdisciplinary "deep science" laboratories that would allow researchers to probe some of the most compelling questions in modern science:

What are the invisible dark matter and dark energy that comprise more than 95 percent of everything visible in the universe?

What is the nature of ghostly particles called neutrinos that pervade the cosmos, but almost never interact with matter, and what can certain kinds of extremely rare radioactivity and particle decay reveal about the fundamental behavior of atoms?

Will this site help reliably predict and control earthquakes?

What are the characteristics of microorganisms at great depth?

Those and other crucial questions can only be investigated at great depth, where thousands of feet of rock can shield ultra-sensitive physics experiments from background activity, and where geoscientists, biologists and engineers can have direct access to geological structures, tectonic processes and life forms that cannot be studied fully in any other way. Although Canada, Italy and Japan, have extensive deep science programs the United States has no existing facilities below a depth of 1 kilometer.

So the building of the DUSEL will address this. The NSF has announced it has picked a team to head up the new US DUSEL.

And Now to Tackle Last Week's Technical Difficulties!

2007-07-15T01:55:00.000-04:00

Ah the life of an introvert - it's 2 in the am and here I am typing. Never mind that I am braindead, this is what it is to be a writer. You just gotta write.

Anyway, enough about me - what I really came to talk-type to you about was the show.

Last week must ahve been the annual revolt of the Machines. My printer defied me. Then my computer had an apoplectic hissy fit. I simply couldn't get the copy of the script I needed. And it was a beautiful script. And still is!

And so I will bring it to you *this* week, complete with some summer music with a technological twist. But last week, it was mutiny of the machines - so I shut them both off and went to reair.

I still cut intros and extros and deadheaded the staledated stuff. And then edited it all, just for our listeners. It was till revolt of the machines though becasue of course do you think the CD would work? nooooo... However my trusty science officer here on the Good Ship Let X = X, now acting second in command, yes, He of the Space Groupies, who you can see in the side column if you scroll down... resplendent in his brown suit and Ferengi mask, snapped to attention and brought in the media goods. So you all goat show. Aren't you happy? A round of applause, please for Mark Young.

This week I am starting early on my quest for a hard copy of the script; wish me luck!

As to the content see last week's post.

My Summer Vacation; Fish, Viruses, Chocolate & Fergie's Tech Blog

2007-07-09T22:33:00.001-04:00

Freshly back from a week's worth of camping, I am scribbling away on this week's show. Should it all go down as planned, this week's episode will feature news on the VHS virus sweeping through the Great Lakes and beyond, as well as a plan afoot in Ontario's Hastings county that's poised to revive the areas sagging trout populations. And we look at German medical research on dark chocolate's effect on blood pressure.

For now, content yourselves with Fergie's Tech Blog, where, among other things, you can read up on the April data breach at Astroglide. This was personal data for those who'd entered their info into the company's records in exchange for free samples.

Toxic Toothpaste Redux: 3 found, 2 counterfeit, & 1 with Bacteria

2007-07-01T02:31:00.001-04:00

Health Canada has been investigating the bogus "Colgate" toothpaste which we mentioned in an earlier column.

But now the RCMP are investigating as well.

No less than 3 kinds of toxic toothpaste have been found, two are counterfeits, containing di-ethylene glycol, a substance used as an anti-freeze and solvent that can casue kidney failure, coma and even death in the vulnerable - for example children who swallow the toothpaste. The glycol is being used in plase of glycerin, which is edible and harmless.

One brand was also found to be contaminated with a bacteria. Read all about the toothpaste tube debacle here.

New NASA Mission Will Chase Ozone & Climate Answers

2007-06-28T02:08:00.000-04:00

NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) field campaign will investigate how chemical compounds in the air are transported vertically into the stratosphere. It will also study how that transport affects cloud formation and climate.

TC4 begin this summer in San Jose, Costa Rica, around July 16 with coordinated observations from satellites, high-flying NASA research aircraft, balloons and ground-based radar. The effort runs through Aug. 8. It's NASA's largest Earth science field campaign of the year.

(TC4's Official Mission Patch - left. Source: NASA)

The mission is complex and could be a real challenge. It involves three aircraft, deployment sites in Costa Rica and Panama, and more than 400 people, according to Mission Project Manager Marilyn Vasques of NASA's Ames Research Center, in Moffett Field, California.

The scientists will be measuring the gases, aerosols and ice crystals that flow from the top of the strong storm systems that form over the warm tropical ocean. These systems pump air up more than 40,000 feet over Earth's surface. There the air can effect the composition of the stratosphere,. The stratosphere is where our planet's protective ozone layer is located.

(right - Diagram showing the Earth's ozone layer relative to the tropospheric & stratospheric layers of the atmosphere) Source, Environment Canada)

The outflow of these storms produces vast swaths of icy cirrus clouds that play an important role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. Scientists want to document the full life cycle of these widespread clouds -- down to the size and shape of their tiny ice crystals -- to better understand how Earth will react to a warming climate.]

CALIPSO, CLOUDsat, AQUA SATELLITES, BALLOONS & AIRCRAFT TO EXPLORE AREA BETWEEN TROPOSPHERE & STRATOSPHERE

"This ...is an unprecedented opportunity to use NASA's complete suite of satellite and airborne Earth-observing capabilities to investigate a largely unexplored region of the atmosphere," said Michael J. Kurylo, a TC4 program scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "This tropical transitional layer of the atmosphere between the troposphere and the stratosphere plays a key role in both climate change science and atmospheric ozone chemistry. The data will yield new insights into the composition of this layer and the impact of the deep clouds that penetrate the atmosphere up into this layer." Get more information on this important new NASA mission here!

NASA ER-2 aircraft, can reach an altitude of 70,000 feet, or 3 miles into the stratosphere. It will soar high above the cloud systems. Another NASA plane, the WB-57, will fly into the cirrus clouds and sample the chemical make-up of the storm systems' outflow. A third plane - NASA's DC-8 - will probe the region between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause transitional layer) with remote-sensing instruments. It also will sample cloud particles and air chemistry at lower altitudes. A weather radar and meteorological balloons will be deployed in Panama to support the campaign. Additional balloons will be launched from Costa Rica and San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago.

Observations from seven satellites will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. For example, the Aura spacecraft will focus on the chemical composition of the tropopause transitional layer and measure ozone, water vapor, carbon monoxide and particles. NASA's Aqua satellite will map thin cirrus clouds, some of which are so faint they are nearly invisible to the naked eye. Instruments on the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) and CloudSat satellites will pierce the atmosphere to provide vertical profiles of clouds and aerosol particles that can change how clouds form. CALIPSO and CloudSat are both a year old and a bit - they went up last April 28th, 2006. You can read more about CloudSat here.

Along the coasts of Colombia and Panama south of Costa Rica, the warm summer waters of the Pacific Ocean are a fertile breeding ground for the type of heat-driven, or convective, storm systems the mission is targeting. Clouds produced by these maritime systems produce heavy rainfall and cloud tops that can reach into the transitional layer.

Mission scientists want to know what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on the intensity of these storm systems.

(right- Convective Tropical Thunderstorm, taken by an astronaut aboard the space shuttle in 1984.Image STS41B-41-2347, Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. )Another unknown is how aerosol particles swept up in these systems change the clouds and are, in turn, affected by the clouds.

These tropical convective systems may also play a role in the recovery of the ozone layer. Estimates of ozone destruction in the stratosphere typically minimize the impact of short-lived chemical compounds that presumably could not survive the long journey there. Mission scientists will investigate whether the rapid movement of air in these strong convective systems provides an express route for ozone-destroying compounds to reach the stratosphere.

(left - Tropical Convective Clouds. Source, NASA)

NASA Headquarters' Earth Science Division is sponsoring the $12 million mission. Costa Rica's National Center for High Technology, San Jose, and the University of Panama, Las Tablas, are cooperating with NASA on the mission as are other U.S. agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.

Radon Safety Levels Revamped; TheTrouble With (Great Lakes) Tritium

2007-06-22T17:27:00.000-04:00

Naturally-occurring but deadly, radon is a radioactive, odourless & invisible gas which boosts the risk of lung cancer in humans. It leaches from the soil and rocks, and can collect in basements and foundations. Radon is believed to be implicated in lung cancer occurring in non-smokers who avoid lung cancer hazards. This month, Health Canada introduced new & improved safety guidelines for exposure to radon.

It used to be that remediation was required by law if exposure exceeded 800 becquerels. The new limit is 200 becquerels. The US limit is lower than Canada's, and set at 150 becquerels. A becquerel is a measurement of radiation.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen, and so can binds readily with water and organic matter and therefore easily become embedded in living tissues. From there it can harm nearby cells. Some experts are concerned about this. Others believe that radon which emits larger particles as it decays, is more of a worry.

Here is a paper reviewing the toxicity of tritium.

This month, Greenpeace released a study on the tritium being released from Ontario Hydro's Candu nuclear reactors located on the Great Lakes. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. Canada's safety standard for tritium is 7,000 Bequerels/Liter. A 1994 Ontario government committee recommeded that the guideline be changed to 100 Bq/l, and decreased over a 5-year period to 20 Bq/l. So far the limit has stayed the same.

This is not unprecedented - here is an earlier Energy Probe study of toxicity of tritium and risk of exposure in the Great Lakes area.

Candu reactors are among the world's largest sources of of the radioactive compound. They can produce up to hundreds of times more tritium than other kinds of fission reactors.

The issue appears to be split down the middle - Greenpeace's report says high amounts of tritium in the Great Lakes and around nuclear stations indicate the energy plants regularly emit it into the environment. Energy Probe's earlier report, above, pointed to tritium as problematic. Meanwhile, Canadian federal and provincial energy regulators claim it is not a danger at lower levels. They say radon is more of a worry as it is more toxic at lower doses than is tritium.

The study's author is radiation biologist, Dr. Ian Fairlie. Fairlie says that Ontario has some of the highest levels of tritium in the environment in the world. Fairlie worked on CERRIE (Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emmitters), a British government committee that reviewed the safety of a number of radioactive substances, including tritium. He also authored a peer-reviewed journal article this year which concluded that the hazards of tritium are underestimated.

Wednesday's Show: Cookies and Space

2007-06-20T00:32:00.000-04:00

Today's show features news on NASA's deals with companies on the commercialization of space (specifically orbital transport), as well as the new Canadian-made transfat free shortening that is the brainchild of a University of Guelph lipid chemist, and some early adopter bakeries that are using it to make baked treats healthier. We also examine the effects of spending long periods of time in space.

So tune in and check it out! 9:15 am at http://www.ckcufm.com

Toxic Toothpaste in Some North American Stores

2007-06-19T09:52:00.001-04:00

Counterfeit contaminated Colgate toothpaste has been found in North American dollar stores. The tubes say they are manufactured in South Africa. But Colgate does not manufacture any toothpaste in South Africa. The fine print on the tubes is riddles with spelling errors. According to this report in the Globe and Mail says FDA and Health Canada are on the case.

The toothpaste has been found to contain diethylene glycol, or DEG, rather than the non-toxic glycerin it is supposed to contain. Diethylene glycol is one form of antifreeze. Some reports of illnesses have surfaced in New York state. Contaminated tubes were found in a dollar store in Guelph, Ontario.

Colgate has set up a toll-free line to call if you have concerns: 1 800 468 6502.

Here is Colgate's release (N.B., they have a 1-800 number set up).

Counterfeit Colgate Toothpaste Found

New York, New York, June 14, 2007...The Colgate�Palmolive Company today warned that counterfeit toothpaste falsely packaged as "Colgate" has been found in several dollar-type discount stores in four states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. There are indications that this product does not contain fluoride and may contain Diethylene Glycol. The Company stated that it does not use, nor has ever used, Diethylene Glycol as an ingredient in Colgate toothpaste anywhere in the world.

The counterfeit toothpaste can be easily recognized because it is labeled as "Manufactured in South Africa." Colgate does not import toothpaste into the United States from South Africa. In addition, the counterfeit packages examined so far have several misspellings including: "isclinically" "SOUTH AFRLCA" "South African Dental Assoxiation".

Counterfeit toothpaste is not manufactured or distributed by Colgate and has no connection with the Company whatsoever. Colgate is working closely with the US FDA to help to identify those responsible for the counterfeit product.

Consumers who suspect they may have purchased counterfeit product, can call Colgate's toll-free number at 1 800 468 6502.

Canada, US, Oz, Worst of OECD Nations on Ecological Indicators

2007-06-10T15:56:00.001-04:00

According to the report of the Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law & Policy at the University of Victoria, Canada are second from last, just above the United States , on a list of 29 environmental indicators.

We're in the bottom half on 22 of 25 of the environmental indicators measured of all the OECD countries. There are just three indicators on which Canada is not in the bottom half.

These are the percentage of the population connected to sewage treatment (9th), the number of endangered species (7th), and the percentage of land protected by parks (13th).

At last we are doing something somewhat right. I say this because the report states that we're among the the three worst nations in the OECD on a per capita basis when it comes to various forms of air pollution (sulphur oxide, carbon monoxide emissions & volatile organic compounds emissions), water consumption, energy consumption, energy efficiency, creation of nuclear waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and volume of forests logged.

In short, our environmental performance generally sucks, as does that of the United States, when compared to other OECD countries.

The top three countries were Switzerland, Mexico, and Turkey. The bottom three are the U.S., Canada and Australia.

On another 6 ecological indicators we're fourth worst in the OECD. these are:
per capita nitrogen oxide emissions,
hazardous waste,
fertilizer consumption,
consumption of ozone-depleting substances,
kilometres traveled by road and
population growth.

I think kilometres traveled by road is largely attributable to the size of the countries and the amount of commuting and hauling of products that goes on. However, having seen the attitude of many people who would rather have all new everything, all the time, and who feel grievously deprived if they can't buy and toss whatever they fancy, and the general push to consume that is conveyed in most media in North America, I don't think it's just the countries' size and long-distance commutes that's driving this indicator. There is an abundance of natural resources in the US, Canada and Australia that too many take for granted, and so squander.

You can download the report here.

Animal Tagging To Be Required in US + Lab Meat Update

2007-06-06T16:21:00.000-04:00

For all of you who are dreading possible National ID tags, and think life might be easier as a chicken, in the US at least, if you were to get your wish, apparently you might still be out of luck. All animals in the US are to be given ID tags through the NAIS legislation, says NoNAIS.org.

Just what is NAIS? The USDA's National Animal Identification System. According to the site's webmaster, Vermont farmer, Walter Jeffries, NAIS is harmful to small farmers, homesteaders, pet owners & consumers. All Americans who own any animals whatsoever will be required to tag them. This includes homesteaders with very small numbers of animals, as well as any and all pets owned by everyone in the US.

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PBS has pictures of lab grown meat (which look huighly unappetizing) plus an online survey to see if people would be willing to eat lab-cultured meat. They say that most tissue that has been engineered is from frog and goldfish stem cells.

Fowl Flavours in Your Meat?

2007-06-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

If you think your burger tastes crappy, you might be onto something - some Canadian livestock producers are feeding utter crap to their animals. But the CFIA is on the case.

CFIA is short for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. And the CFIA's fine inspectors are today reminding all livestock producers not to feed of any form of poultry manure (including poultry litter) to livestock as this is still illegal in Canada. (It's legal anywhere else?!?) The Canadian CFIA originally published information on the ban in December of 1998, as "Information Note on the Feeding of Poultry Manure to Cattle". Apparantly that didn't stop some livestock producers and the CFIA has since "successfully prosecuted several producers who kept feeding animals destined for human consumption fowl feces. Yum! Somewhat reassuring is the fact that the agency's follow-up inspections have found a significant decline in the use of poultry manure as a feed ingredient.

ID Protection Entrepreneur in Litigation for Having Stolen Father's ID

2007-06-05T17:38:00.000-04:00

LifeLock, a company that offers an anti-identity theft service consisting mainly of calling credit bureaus for you to put in fraud alerts in case your credit cards or other ID gets stolen, may not be as squeaky clean as its ads lead you to believe.

Today on dataloss a reference to the BNN article led me to an investigative article by Ray Stern in the Phoenix New Times about Maynard's shady crooked past.

According to BNN (Blogger News Network) Robert J. Maynard Jr. has a very questionable background, including convictions while he was running a credit-repair company that was was shut down by authorities in the early 1990s for false advertising and deceptive practices.

Forced closure means that a US federal court order banned Maynard from working in the credit-repair industry — forever. He isn't supposed to be running a business like LifeLock, the hot new anti-identity theft company, based in Tempe, Arizona.

Stern also unearthed information showing something interesting: Maynard Jr. is apparently lying about having had his data stolen. But, Stern's article says that Maynard did steal his own father's identity at one point. His dad, understandably, is no longer speaking with him and is litigating.

Nice.

Whatever good things I said in any previous columns about LifeLock - disregard them - get out while you still can - who knows what a guy who'd steal his own father's data will do with yours!

LifeLock has ads in many major mainstream media outlets and a very slick professional looking web presence. I recollect covering LifeLock in this column, at one point. The company's web presence was particularly shiny. Shiny as in too slick.

I figure, get out now and save your data while you still can. and if you're thinking of using the company - read Sterns article, that I've linked above - and see what you think!

I would not be touching this with a ten foot pole. Not even a 100-ft. pole, come to think of it.

Update: Melamine in the Food Chain

2007-06-05T09:28:00.002-04:00

A least one North American manufacturer of a pet food ingredient is using melamine in their product. Melamine is a plastic and is not edible but has been used by Chinese manufacturers to jack the apparent protein content of their grain products. Chronic ingestion of melamine can cause kidney and bladder stones lading to bladder cancer. It was found to be recombining with another toxic ingredient,which is a pool additive, cyanuric acid, also being added for the same reason:unscrupulous profit, with no regard to safety. Together, the 2 compounds become toxic synergistically, causing kidney failure in some animals including cats and dogs, through the formation of crystalline structures in the kidneys.

two forms of cyanuric acid

melamine

melamine and cyanuric acid molecules forming bonds

If it is being used by one North American plant, are they the only one? Time will tell, but I do wonder where else the plastic will show up next.

Pork From A Petrie Dish - Brave New Meat

2007-06-04T15:38:00.000-04:00

The Globe and Mail's article today about Dutch scientists attempting to plate out meat, the way others plate out microbes, reminded me of this bizarre research which we covered sometime last year or the year before. I'd have to check our script archive to see the precise date this came up. We didn't do much on it - just a mention, and also that the edible mammalian tissue the scientists are growing doesn't have blood vessels.

I've plated out organisms in biology class. You grow the critters on a medium. There are different types of this substrate you can grow things on. Many of you will have heard of agar as a medium. It's a protein rich gelatin derived from seaweed (which isn't having the best time of it, lately). Not every critter can be grown on the same stuff. The medium you use in your petrie dish amounts to food for the growing organisms - usually single celled creatures, but you can grow fungus just as well.

And so I am wanting to know what the culture medium is, what elements go in to produce this so-called meat. What are they putting in to the growth medium?

Will the finished labmeat have the same B-12 content as normal meat? B-12 is a necessary nutrient found only in meat and to some degree in some yeasts. B-12 helps us make blood cells, which you need if you are going to keep breathing - not enough and you can get anemia. Of course the blood cells also carry other nutrients. If it has no blood cells then will it have any B-12 or iron at all? Iron is another thing that is found largely in meat. The heme form of iron is found in animal tissue - the non-heme form is found in vegetables and is harder to access. I know this from bitter personal experience as an anemic. I had tried to cut back on meat consumption but it didn't work - at least for me.

Being curious, I did some poking online and found a very interesting site, called VAT FOOD, which has various articles on growing meat in the lab, in a vat or via plate culture. This last linked article is from Popular Science. The site has articles from all manner of media outlets. It's pro-lab meat, there doesn't seem to be any questioning of what nutrients will be in the chewy in vitro veal etc. but worth a read.

In the scarily named journal Tissue Engineering" there is a paper entitled In Vitro Cultured Meat. It's all about the different ways in which the different kinds of skeletal muscle tissue can be grown. The easiest to culture are myofibres - these are the fibres muscles are composed of. Such a cultured meat product would resemble hamburger.

I'm not so sure this is what the doctor ordered for anyone with celiac disease, (which can cause anemia), or anyone with any other type of anemia.

Of course anything is possible. But how likely remains to be seen.

The work comes out of some of NASA's stuff on providing protein for space travelers. It's not really completely 'cruelty free' they use stem cells form the animals to engineer the meat. Read more about it here. The scientists working on culturing meat in vitroh ave said that nutritional profiles of meats could be improved by tweaking the nutrients that are added. But the stuff still has to come from somewhere - the added nutrients and the myofibre's cultural media. Some of them have formed their own non-profit company, called board members.

I wonder what farmers think of this plan for 'brave new meat' It doesn't look as if it will solve the dilemma of the remaining family farms. How sustainable is this lab meat? There will be nutrients needed. The lab meat does not come out of nothing.

Click here to see more on the problems with factory farming versus family farms and modern heavily profit-driven agricorp processing of meat and dairy production.

Space Shuttle Atlantis Set to Blast Off on ISS Repair Mission

2007-06-03T13:29:00.002-04:00

All systems are almost go for Space Shuttle Atlantis to launch. They're off to the International Space Station on June 8th. ARead more about the mission here. There's been some trouble with previous attempts to unfold the all solar arrays panels. They literally got stuck together the last time and failed to unfurl. This meant the cables that are meant to pull the arrays taut came off their pulleys, leaving the solar array hanging.

But this time the astronauts have a backup plan. Two of them will assist the arrays in unfurling.

You can check out the shuttle launch online.

Trans-Fat Free Treats Possible Thanks to Canadian Food Chemist

2007-06-02T09:28:00.000-04:00

University of Guelph food scientist Alex Marangoni has come up with a trans-fat free, saturated-fat free shortening. Say hello to CoaVel, the 2003 discovery and invention of the food chemistry professor.

"If you're the type of person who eats a cookie a day, this is going to be good news for you, because at least you're not downing a whole ton of saturated or trans fat that's going to get you in the end", says the food scientist.

Bakers may be able to use CoaVel to eliminate trans fat from commercial baked goods.

Marangoni had heard for years that the amount of artery-clogging trans-fats were increasing in the food supply. he wanted to find a solution. The chemist, who is a professor of food science at U of Guelph, started to experiment by mixing water, a unsaturated vegetable oil, and monoglycerides - which are a thickening agent into a fat substance similar to shortening. Scientists had never tried this before. Marangoni told reporters "To be honest, it's so simple, I don't know why no one else tried it. We started using it in baking and it was incredible, no trans (fat), no saturated fat, and it had baking capabilities.''

Then he took it to commercial bakers who liked the health benefits of the product, but wondered if it would compromise the taste of the foods they were baking.

Tasty Selections, a bakery based in Concord, Ont. sells its frozen baked goods to many of Canada's best hotels. They're launching a premium trans fat-free cookie line this month. There will be eight flavours from triple chocolate, decadent chocolate chunk, and white chocolate macadamia.

The companies president says they taste "very close'' to their full-fat counterparts. The cookies have less sugar, area source of fibre, and, thanks to CoaVal they have no trans fat

Canada banned transfats in 200 Denmark banned them in
A member of the Irish Parliament has recently called for a ban of transfats in Ireland. And several US cities have banned them, including Philadelphia and New York.

Aside from the health problems of trans fats - there are problems with the fats that are being sued to replace them - coconut and palm oils. These fell out of favour when it became known that large swathes of tropical forest were being cleared for

and that these forest fellings were contributing to the largest cause of the rising extinction rate - habitat destruction.

CoaVel has the potential to be the solution to the global trans fat problem, and could spare forests from being cut down for coconut and palm plantations. But the scientist says there was some initial trial and error. The researchers and bakeries have had to deal with exploding muffins started exploding, and cookies wouldn't spread. In response to these changes were made to the CoaVel, and the baking company tweaked their cookie recipe to keep the number of kitchen catastrophes down.

"In a way we're helping them make their product healthy, but at the same time tasty. And that's what this product is targeted towards, increasing the health of the population by changing just the products we eat every day.''says Marangoni.

Soft Drinks and DNA Damage

2007-05-29T14:09:00.000-04:00

There are reports now, in the news, that consuming sodium benzoate can damage DNA. Sodium benzoate is a preservative; it's used in a number of foods, for example, soda pop . In North America it's on the GRAS list - an acronym which means substances (could be herbal, addirive, or otherwise) that are Generally Recognized As Safe.

What the news reports aren't mentioning is that the new research by British scientists Peter Piper, shows that sodium benzoate can recombine with another compound to form something which is lethal to mitochondria and their DNA.

Toxicologists speak of "de novo substances". When you eat certain substances they can recombine *in the body* to form a de novo (from new) substance, which you never intended to chow down on. This is not usually an unknown substance - it's usually a known toxin.

This combinataion is what is causing the DNA to be damaged. It's not just the sodium benzoate.

Mitochondria are basically like batteries for your cells - they produce energy in all eukaryotic organisms - believe it, or not, this means YOU. Here is some information on how these microscopic organelles produce energy for all the cells in your bod.

Piper is an expert on aging, and a biochemist. He did his research on how the mitochondrial DNA in yeast responds to the de novo substance produced by eating both of these, which frequently appear in pop drinks. Researchers work on yeast since working on humans is unethical and because yeast are easier and more inexpensive to do DNA damage research on. Mitochondrial DNA is pretty much the same no matter what organisism has it, whether single celled (yeast) or multi-celled (humans), whether fungus (yeast), plant, or animal (eg. you or your Uncle Fred.)

Piper's findings alarmed him so he spoke out - giving an interview to the UK paper, The Independant. That paper also as another piece on sodium benzoate and some other' food additive that have been called into question.

"These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether. The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."

So what is the other substance they are combining with to form the DNA damaging compound? Epidemiologist Hsien-Hsien Lei says on her blog "Eye on DNA", that it's Hold onto your hats: Vitamin C, which your body needs, and which is also on the GRAS list.

More Toxic Substitutions

2007-05-27T23:21:00.000-04:00

Last year contaminated cough syrup imported into Panama killed 50 people. The medication was contaminated with diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze and also used as a brake coolant.

Now the killer contaminant is turning up in some toothpaste imported from the same place (which happens to be China) & some authorities around the world are taking action. Nicaragua and Costa Rica are both seizing shipments of toothpaste manufactured in China as a result.

The brands in question, "Mr. Cool" and "Excel" have not been licensed for use in Canada, but Health Canada is checking in case people have brought the products back with them from countries where they are sold. Renee Bergeron, a spokeswoman with Health Canada said "It is possible that these products could ...have been brought into Canada through personal importation, or purchased over the Internet. Health Canada is monitoring this issue and will take the appropriate compliance and enforcement action if the product is found to be on the Canadian market."

The brands are part of a wave of contaminated products hailing from China.

Diethylene glycol is being used in China as a cut-rate substitute for glycerin, which is more expensive, but is safe to consume - unlike brake coolant and antifreeze. Recalls have been launched in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and US food safety specialists are conducting toxin testing of imported toothpaste. The Chinese manufacturers who made the tainted toothpaste claim diethylene glycol is safe to consume in small amounts.

This article points out that according to reports in the Washington Post found the US FDA labeled Chinese fruit as "filthy" and swordfish as "poisonous,", and they also found carcinogenic ingredients in frozen shrimp. 80 percent of ascorbic acid - that's vitamin C, which is also used as a food preservative - comes from China. Less than 1 percent of Chinese food imports are inspected by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The rejection rate? 25 times that of Canadian products imported to the US.

Environmental Conservationist Targetted, Slain, in Toronto

2007-05-20T15:46:00.000-04:00

The Toronto Police Department are seeking clues in the shooting death of an ecological conservation philanthropist.

Glen Davis was shot just after 2 p.m. on Friday, in the underground parking garage of the building where the World Wildlife Fund has its main Canadian offices. The building is located at 245 Eglinton Ave. East, near Mount Pleasant Road. He had just finished having lunch with a WWF associate.

A major wildlife conservation philanthropist, Davis donated millions of dollars to habitat and wildlife conservation causes, including a donation of $2 million dollars to World Wildlife Fund Canada which he and his family made in 2000. Davis and his family also donated to the Sierra Club of Canada, the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and the Canadian National women's rowing team.

Toronto Police say Davis was deliberately targeted and have opened a homicide investigation.

Security cameras captured these pictures of the man, below, who was in the parking garage around the time of the shooting - the police are calling him a "person of interest' which means he could be either a witness or a suspect. They want to speak with him and are asking the public for help finding him and for any other information or tips that might be useful in solving the case.

This 'person of interest is described by police as being:
* White;
* Between 25 and 30 years old; and
* About 5-foot-8;
* Wearing a black baseball cap, a blue sweater, a waist-length dark jacket
with a hood, dark pants, and white running shoes and a dark-coloured backpack.

If you have information please contact the Toronto Homicide Squad at 416-808-7418, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477). You can also submit information online.

Lost In Space: Bone Density & Muscle Mass

2007-05-20T15:32:00.000-04:00

After 277 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and with 10 spacewalks to his credit and more than 67 hours of total spacewalking time, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, commander of Expedition 14 to the ISS, set 2 NASA records.

Now he and fellow astronaut Mikhail Tyurin, who was the Flight Engineer, are recovering from their adventure. They returned back to earth around April 21st and are still regaining their lost muscle mass and bone density, as they adjust to Earth's gravity. These tissue losses happen in spite of rigorous daily exercise while on board the ISS. The losses are normal in long duration stays away from earth's gravity field. Commander Lopez-Alegria said he thought that "it takes about a week or two to get back to 80 or 90 percent, and I think it's going to take a lot longer to get that last 10 percent back. But so far, so good." He should know - this is his fourth stay in space. Younger people recover faster, according to previous NASA research.

According to NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research even with rigorous workouts, astronauts return to Earth much much weaker than when they left. After just 11 days in microgravity muscle fibers can shrink up to 30 percent and cause soreness as damaged muscles tear while readjusting to Earth's gravity.

Space medicine researchers and radiologists and other medical researchers and biologists have studied tissue loss due to lack of sufficient gravity at
Texas A & M University as well as this 2004 article (which I just found hours after I came up with this article's title. :) in Radiology Today both if which look at bone density losses.

Devices have been used to study bone density changes for about a decade.

BIOPEER!

2007-05-18T01:56:00.000-04:00

Biopeer calls it's a blog for the global life science research community where peers can discuss new biological developments.

I grabbed a widget from their site so you can see the cool new research being done. A fair bit of medical stuff - no big surprise there. New treatments being explored for TB and MS. Very cool!

Computer Code Finds 744 Sex Predators On MySpace, Paves Way for Arrest.

2007-05-15T15:53:00.000-04:00

Wired's Kevin Poulsen went undercover online & found some some alarming information about who's lurking on MySpace. Armed with a sheaf of information on convicted sex offenders, and his knowledge of the cimputer language Perl, the reporter confirmed a total of 744 sex criminals with MySpace profiles, after an examination of about a third of the data. Almost 500 of them are registered for sex crimes against children, 6 listed as repeat offenders and at least 243 of the child sex offenders have convictions in 2000 or later.

Poulsen built an automated program, using Perl, to sift through all of MySpace's profiles looking for 385,932 convicted and released sex offenders from 46 states. He says he mined the list from the US Department of Justice's National Sex Offender Registry website which he says is "gateway to the state-run Megan's Law websites". He used first and last names and limited results to a five-mile radius around each offender's ZIP code. Here is the guy that Poulsen's code caught, which enabled him (the sex offender, not Pouslen :) to be busted for trying to solicit sex online with a 14 year-old gay boy.

WiredSafety.org is working with MySpace to fight this kind of thing, according to Poulsen's article.

Wired News published the code Poulsen used last year under an open-source license. It's not a plug and play application however. And it's not perfect. And it's not an excuse, he points out, 'to go vigilante', it only finds matches by name - the person could easily be someone else with the same name who not the offender. Poulsen went through the entire possible list of potential offenders which the program dug up, using his own eyes to verify if the people were the same as the offenders - age, mug shots, etc. He did find false positives. Lots of them. The program cannot find anyone who is using an assumed name, nor anyone who has legally changed their name. Here's Wired's follow-up article about the code. The article has a link to download the gzipped tar file with the program. If you have to ask what a tar file is, you will not be able to use the program. To use it you need to have at least some familiarity with Perl, says Poulsen, who also notes that the program's code could use some cleaning up.

Carrot, Turnip, Parsnip, the Nano-Dream of Economist & Bikers Alike

2007-05-12T02:26:00.000-04:00

Fly fishing rods of the new biocomposite, curran - Scots Gaelic for carrot, are now available. Curran is made of resin mixed with nano-sized carrot fibres. The patent for it is here. CelluComp, Ltd. is the manufacturer. Curran exhibits faster damping and has a lower density, than carbon fibre, plus it's moldable.

Meanwhile, over on A Canadian Econoview, an economist's imagination runs wild over the possibilities of getting around in vehicles made of carrots and turnip, and the then potential need for a central carrot governing body and strategic carrot reserve. :) And on the UK site, Bike Biz, they are excited by the potential end of what they're calling a "carbon fibre famine", due to biocomposites made from assorted root vegetables which cellulose fibre could be made of to mix with the resin to form the curran nano-bio-composite. They have added parsnips to the other two veggies. I'd like to add the humble rutabaga to the potential list.

OTOH, this might be bad for world food prices of these comestibles. Look at what's happened to vanilla once the whole aromatherapy-based body product thing took off. The price has gone way up because the demand is so high.

Anti-freeze & Lead in Medicine, Plastic in the Pork Chops

2007-05-11T20:06:00.000-04:00

A 7 page special from the New York Times on how diethylene glycol - aka antifreeze, is being substituted for glycerin in medicines and some food products.

This article mentions that vitamins from are adulterated with lead.

And where are these from? The same place as the melamine, cyanuric acid, (a pool stabilizer) and aminopterin laced pet foods and animal feed mixtures: China. Yes, China, supporter of Sudan, stealer of Tibet, harvester of shark fins from live sharks, and organs from live political prisoners and the religious - I'm with this Stoney Creek man who's decided to boycott Chinese goods; given all the toxins that are being purposely added to Chinese exports to make a profit, it's a sensible thing to do for one's own safety.

Here are some sites with information on why and how to boycott Chinese made goods and products.

"Buying the Dragon's Teeth" was published in 2004. It outlines the reasons to boycott.

U.S. State Department info on Organ Harvesting in China

Epoch Times list of all their reports on Trade in Organ Removal from Live Humans.

Boycott 'Made in China'

Don't Feed the Dragon Campaign

Organic Bees Not As Susceptible to Colony Collapse

2007-05-11T15:51:00.000-04:00

Some beekeepers are reporting that their organic beehives are not suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder, which is decimating normal hives in North America. The speculation is that this is because of the absence of pesticide fumigation to combat the varroa mite, a parasite which has been attacting hives in North America for the last few years.

Here is a website about organic honey bees.

Melamine Used As Cake Additive: Chinese Chem. Plant Manager

2007-05-11T01:26:00.000-04:00

"Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for animal feed," said Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province. "Melamine is mainly used in the chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes."

There you have it folks - from the International Herald Tribune. It's at the very bottom of the article. And the Washington Post has the revelation that before melamine there was urea being added, for the same reason - inflated and bogus protein content.

Melamine scrap is used in North America as an abrasive blast medium. Sonapa sells recycled plastics, including melamine scrap with formaldehyde. Here is there ad for "Type III – Thermoset Melamine Formaldehyde: Melamine is engineered for stripping the most difficult surfaces while providing an effective stripping rate. Melamine is the most aggressive plastic abrasive, offering an excellent range of stripping capabilities. Melamine can be used as a replacement for glass beads and other harsh abrasives."

In China, melamine scrap is mixed into soymeal, and sold to feedlots and farmers. A manager with Tai'an Yongfeng Feedmill Co. Ltd in the coastal province of Shandong says that "The chemical plant next to us used the melamine scrap as waste for landfill and built houses on it. Then they tore down the buildings to get the scrap once the price rose. It is a very popular business here. I know people have been mixing this since 1991."

One article I read spoke of an online market, Alibaba.com, where companies sell and buy chemicals and which is very big in China.

Latrines & Farmed Fish

2007-05-10T23:24:00.000-04:00

The picture above is from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and shows a latrine situated over a fish pond, in China. The addition of manure and other waste materials like sewage, is a common practice in aquaculture - see Auburn University's online site about it with pictures.

The FAO recommends in this instructional guide to would-be freshwater fish farmers recommends that latrines be located at last 10 feet from fish ponds to avoid the fish being unsafe to eat.

the Chinese and Vietnamese are using latrine ponds full of human and other wastes to raise fish which they sell to North American and other markets for export.

Aplastic-anemia.org has this information about imported fish: "According to the Catfish Institute, most of the catfish from Vietnam are raised in floating cages in the Mekong River or in "latrine ponds" in provinces along the river. Slow moving currents during the dry season adversely affect cage-raised fish and the Mekong River is subject to pesticide contamination... "Latrine ponds are depressions that employ the Chinese system of channeling human and other waste into ponds used to raise fish."

China Adding Toxins On Purpose; Motive May Be Sinister

2007-05-09T17:36:00.000-04:00

Melamine is a plastic. Aminopterin is a toxic folic acid analogue and a rat poison (banned, at least in North America). Cyanuric acid is a pool chemical.

None of them should be on anyone's menu. But now pigs, (see here also), as well as chicken and fish have been found to have been fed food containing contaminated feed grade grain products - all from China.

The FDA suspects that China is adding nitrogen-rich toxins DELIBERATELY to grain products to jack apparent protein contents and they have found there way into our food supplies. And not just our pets' food.

Peachy.

Scientists have found that combining melamine and cyanuric acid produces crystals like those found in the pets who died after eating the contaminated food. Here is another report about the chemical reaction.

"Our food-safety system is broken," Rosa L. DeLauro, Chair of the US House Subcommittee that funds the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture, told UP reporters in this Science Daily article on the tainted farmed fish.

She's hardly understating the problem.

Meanwhile over on the Huffington Post, David Goldstein says he's having a crisis of faith in the US FDA, which he terms the faith-based Dining system. Some interesting quotes on that site.

The plot is very thick at this point - the motive - sell inferior goods for a fattened profit margin to the gaijin: The International Herald Tribune is reporting that Chinese chemical producers say it's common knowledge that ... for years feed producers in China have quietly and secretly used cyanuric acid to cheat buyers of animal feed. Two of the chemical makers said that Chinese feed producers used cyanuric acid because it is even cheaper than melamine and is also high in nitrogen, enabling feed producers to artificially lift the protein reading of the feed.

Over a month ago when the pet food scandal first came to light, I held back from reporting what my gut and intuition knew to be true - that the toxins had been added on purpose. "Why would someone do that?" I wondered to myself. Also I had no hard evidence at that time - just a sneaking suspicion that since feed grains are eaten by more than just pets, the initial scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. I really truly wish I had been wrong. But no - the scandal keeps getting bigger and the plot has thickened and stinks considerably more than when I predicted it would get messy and ugly. It's not just wheat gluten, it's rice and corn and who knows what else in the Chinese grain department.

What are we feeding our animals? What are we feeding ourselves? Should we be trading with regimes that are unprincipalled enough to sell us garbage?

And why is ANYONE in North America buying wheat form the Chinese who have enough trouble feeding themselves, when Canada, the United States, Russia and Ukrainian are the largest wheat producers in the world??

Is it just all about money? Maybe not! There may be VERY SINISTER REASON the Chinese governemnt is allowing this if the expatriate Chinese journalists over at Epoch Times are correct. China has imprisoned several of the news outlet's reporters.

According to two speeches by CCP's former Defense Minister, Chi Haotian and published by the Epoch Times, China's government plans to exterminate US citizens. Here is the other article "The War Is Approaching Us". Chi was responsible for and in operational command during the Tianammen Square massacres in the 1990's. The Epoch Times is run by people who do a lot of investigative work in China. I hope they are wrong but my gut says this article is true. The country is strapped for space, they have annexed Tibet. They would stand to gain a lot of land and resources if they could take over North America. The Chinese government is not without a plausible motive to follow through on Chi's Mein Kampf-esque ideas.

A Very Fly Show - part 1 of the Best of Let X = X

2007-05-09T03:31:00.000-04:00

From May 14th to June 4th, the station is installing new on-air studios. This means our production studios will be used for on air, as well as for on-air guests. To avoid a production nightmare as everyone scurries for time slots around live shows (gah!) I decided we would air 4 weeks of some of the best of our shows from the last year.

Let X = X, every Wednesdays, you can listen via the web, 9:15 am-9:30 am. Right after the Garden Spot News. Just click the link on the side bar! You will need Real Player but you can download it at our live webcast link.

So this week, tune in and enjoy our special re-broadcast this week where we look at some biological links to food and forensics to a new patented method of preventing listeria in deli meats, to why a beloved (to some) food was banned by at least one government, and the lowdown on cheese and bacon and ham skippers and hoppers.

After breakfast biology on CKCU-FM!

PVC; Small Portable Homes

2007-05-07T18:08:00.000-04:00

Two short items of possible interest.

As I was deep in writing and research mode for the show unearthing stuff about two chemicals that have made the news (because of environmental contamination, as well as occupational safety (at least in one case)), I tripped over thee following information about another chemical you may have heard of: PVC.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) expose over at the Houston Chronicle. Not sure what sort of cleanup has happened in the intervening almost decade. Wikipedia has some referenced information on the compound and its uses.

In completely unrelated news, I stumbled upon this today: a portable dwelling that claims to be part Yurt, part Dome, the "Yome".
Then again, there is the more traditional looking tiny home from, natch, Tumbleweed Tiny Homes.

Sunday (Meteor) Showers,Virus Targets USB Stick Drives

2007-05-05T14:28:00.000-04:00

This Sunday night Earth drives straight through the trail of debris left by Hailey's Comet: the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Dust and debris will slam into our planet's atmosphere at 66 km./second.

The meteor shower is visible anywhere on earth at about 2 am local time. Because it's a full moon all but the biggest brightest bits will be hard to see, though. Bring a blanket somewhere dark outside and lie down for best viewing. Click here for info on where to look in the sky. The eta Aquarids are best viewed in the southern hemisphere; die hards up here in the no-longer-so-frozen north, can expect about 5 to 10 shooting stars each hour.

****************************************
Computer crackers are up to no good, as usual. Crackers, or black hats are computer geeks (a.k.a. hackers) who have crossed over to the darkside. Crackers latest hack is spread viruses by targetting USB 'stick drives' or flash drives.

Which just goes to show you you need to be careful where you stick your stick, I suppose.

Put Pork (& Tainted Pet Food?) On Your Fork

2007-04-30T16:15:00.000-04:00

The chemically tainted pet food has almost certainly found its way into the human food chain.

And you read it here first, back in March, when almost everyone was minimizing the danger to the human food supply from the tainted gluten. Back when the poison that was killing pets in contaminated pet food was first revealed to be tainted Chinese wheat gluten, this is in fact what I reported and predicted on the show and this blog, as an area of serious concern, and I said I'd keep everyone posted.

Something else: was the toxin added on purpose? I theorized exactly this back in March on the show, though I had no idea what the motive was, but I cut that part, because I wondered if maybe the Chinese government might get it's knickers in a twist and sue the station. We're a community and campus station. We're not made out of money. My suspicions hit the cutting room floor.

And here is the piece I wrote when it was found it wasn't just wheat gluten that was contaminated.

So now there are there are FDA raids and other, er, interesting things happening:

South Africa has banned Chinese gluten products, in this case the culprit was corn gluten.
China is blocking US investigations by the FDA's food inspectors.
the US FDA has opened a criminal investigation into the tainted food scandal.
Wikipedia has a timeline of the pet food crisis.

And melamine and cyanuric acid has been found in the diets of pigs from Kansas and Utah slaughterhouses that ate tainted 'salvage' pet food. These pigs may have entered the food supply. The US has quarantined hogs found to have been fed 'salvaged' contaminated pet food. The quarantined hogs are in California, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma and Ohio.

Meanwhile, the FDA is refusing to do a pork recall, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Now the big question is: did the toxin-laced pet food find it's way into the diet of any other animals destined for human consumption? Absolutely, is my prediction. Again - I'll keep you posted! I could be wrong. I hope I am! First we have to see if anyone will even test for it. I expect there will be tests by some companies.

But before the vegetarians get too shirty with the omnivores, I urge them, again, take a good look at what you who eschew meat are eating - seitan is made of wheat gluten. Is that gluten tested for safety? Did it come from China? Write and ask the companies that are making your food! Why?

Because other than seitan, many meat substitutes are laced with gluten, as a rule. Some of these may also have have been dosed with melamine to boost apparent protein content. Why would gluten sellers only lace part of the gluten when they could make lots more moolah sell faked-high protein gluten to human food suppliers, too?

Here is an excerpt of some information about the compound at Wikipedia:

On April 19 researchers announced that a "spoke-like crystal" had been found in contaminated rice protein concentrate and the tissues and urine of affected animals. The crystal serves as a biomarker for contamination and is roughly 30% melamine. The remainder has been identified as cyanuric acid, amilorine and amiloride by researchers at the University of Guelph, in Ontario and Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. The three chemicals are metabolites of melamine, which researchers hypothesized were formed as the animals metabolized the melamine. Other researchers at Michigan State University have confirmed amilorine and amiloride but not the cyanuric acid. At least one researcher believes that cyanuric acid, commonly used in pool chlorination, is the most likely chemical in the contaminated products causing renal failure in the affected animals, although tests in dogs and rats have shown that cyanuric acid is safe.[1] Richard Goldstein of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine hypothesized that the crystallization of melamine and cyanuric acid might cause cyanuric acid to remain in the kidneys for longer periods of time than when cyanuric acid in pool water is accidentally swallowed by people, explaining its apparent increased toxicity in this case. While it remains possible that cyanuric acid was added as a separate contaminant, Goldstein said that it was likely that it was the result of bacterial metabolism of melamine.[2] Cyanuric acid is a known intermediate byproduct of bacterial metabolism of melamine.[3]

For the Love of Space (ISS link now works!)

2007-04-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

NB.. I have fixed the link which now REALLY DOES take you to the International Space Station's webbpages at NASA! :)

There are nearly 800 news reports on the story, so you've no doubt heard that Steven Hawking, the world's most famous cosmologist, got his birthday wish - a parabolic flight, a.k.a. "a ride on the 'vomit comet'". courtesy of 'Zero G'.

It's called a vomit comet because some people's stomachs don't respond too well to 'microgravity'.

The flight is Dr. Hawking's first step towards his dream of orbiting the earth.

Cosmology is a branch of astronomy dealing with the study of the universe. By now you've heard the news that Britain's star cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, has made his 'zero-G' parabolic flight and experienced 8 twenty-five second bursts of almost weightlessness. And you might know that since 1979 he has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, in their Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. But did you know that Dr. Hawking has his own website?

You can read more in two more articles about his flight which I've 'Dugg' up for you, one from the BBC and one from the Planetary Society, which was founded in part by another star astronomer, Carl Sagan.

And here you can watch some multimedia stuff about Dr. Hawking and his theories.
Stephen Hawking suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aka ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease is known in the UK as motor neurone disease. Anyone who thinking the disabled are wasting resources and/or that having disability is an impossible barrier to accomplishment will have to eat their words after Dr. Hawking's flight today. yes, he had help. So do all the astronauts. No one flies up there alone.

For the sake of our listeners I subscribe to NASAs press release service. Here is their take on Hawking's zero-G

NASA SCIENCE STATEMENT ON STEPHEN HAWKING'S ZERO GRAVITY FLIGHT

WASHINGTON - The following is a statement from Alan Stern, NASA
associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at
Headquarters in Washington, regarding renowned physicist Stephen
Hawking's flight aboard Zero Gravity Corporation's Boeing 727.

"Stephen Hawking's flight to experience zero gravity is exciting. I
can say from flying hundreds of parabolas aboard NASA KC-135s myself
that the experience is eye-opening, exhilarating and personally
fulfilling. My own experiences primarily were participating in
research in space motion sickness and later, low-gravity accretion.
But it's the 21st century now, and I expect more and more scientists
to be conducting research in zero gravity, and even in space, as new
vehicles and venues for such research open.

"Space is as much a place for scientists, I believe, as the arctic,
Antarctic, and the deep ocean. And Dr. Hawking is showing the way.

"I want to extend my congratulations to him on his first taste of zero
gravity and offer my best wishes for the realization of his dream of
launching into space itself."

*****************************************************

Now, for those of you interested in 'vomit comet rides' - we covered parabolic flights, with the help of the Canadian Space Agency, plus a fair bit on the International Space Station, as well as looking at the two most recent 'space tourists'.

Last year Jon & I reported on parabolic flights last year, and also on Anousheh Ansari, the first woman to go into space who isn't an astronaut - she visited the International Space Station in October of 2006. Here is her space blog.

More recently I did part of an episode on the changeover of the ISS's crew (Expedition 14 going home and Expedition 15 just getting aboard), on ISS Flight engineer Sunita (Suni) Williams running the Boston marathon in while aboard the International Space Station, as well as a mention of Space Tourist (and ex-Microsoft star software engineer - he authored Outlook and Word, two programs used by many MANY people!). Simonyi's trip got an extra media boost from a couple of unusual things. One - he is Martha Stewart's boyfriend. Two - his multimedia blog, 'Charles in Space'.

In doing the research for that show I discovered that both Stewart and the Food Network's Emeril have been closet space cases - admiring the work of the astronauts and groups like NASA. So we took a bit of time to look at Emiril's contribution to life aboard the International Space Station: he sent a up Cajun & Creole food for ISS's crew, much to their delight. Because, as we also reported, in space, people's tastebuds don't work as they do on earth: prolonged microgravity dulls them! So the spiciness of Emiril's food was much appreciated by the astronauts.

Here is NASA's take on 'space food.'

"Strawberry Daiquiri, Doc!"

2007-04-27T16:13:00.000-04:00

Does soaking fruit in booze *really* make it healthier?

Whereas over on Digg, booze drinkers, swingers, a plethora of bachelors and bachelorettes and other wishful thinkers are already laying into the strawberry daiquiris, to celebrate the research news that adding berries to alcohol can boost the amount of phytochemicals available for your body to use, the BBC reports that other scientists (nutritionists and dieticians) say that the effect of the alcohol (for example on your liver!) may cancel out any health gains from the liberated antioxidants. Here's what alcohol does, in excess, to your liver! And there is more info here.

By the "drink your face off! it's healthy!" line of reasoning (read wishful thinking!) you could just as well make strawberry rum trifle and call it a health food ;-). I will admit I quite like that line of thought but it sure isn't rational! That's the path that leads thinking thatdoughnuts and beer will make you live longer! So *very* not. Not even if they are gluten-free! But then there is Matt's Super Genius Vodka Infusion, featuring not just strawberries but also pineapple and watermelon. And watermelon is oozing with lycopene.

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

U of Misssissippi Study: Not Your Daddy's Joint

2007-04-27T14:38:00.000-04:00

"[the University of Mississippi report on Marijuana Potency] underscores that we are no longer talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s -- this is Pot 2.0,"
John Walters, Director of USA's National Drug Control Policy.

Tetra-hydro-cannabinol, or THC, is the active component in cannabis sativa (otherwise known as marijuana). Which means it's the thing in pot which makes people intoxicated.

Reuters, reports that the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) released a report on the potency of the plant. Cannibis sativa is the centre for a huge and illegal (in North America, at least) business in illicit drugs. The main finding of the report? Modern marijuana has a bit more than double the THC percentage it did in the late 1980's. This is based on samples of cannabis, and hashish, that have been analyzed over the decades by the Pharmacy Department at the University of Mississippi's Marijuana Potency Project. Their data shows that average levels of THC rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 8.5 percent in 2006, rising steadily from average THC levels of 3.5 percent, back in 1988. They studied 59,369 samples of cannabis, 1,225 of hashish and 443 of hash oil which police have confiscated since 1975. According to their report, "the highest concentration of (THC) found in a cannabis (marijuana) sample is 33.12 percent from Oregon State Police."

There is a short piece on the U of Mississippi report on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Here is the university's press release on Dan Rather's report on medical marijuana, which featured the pharmacy department's marijuana researchers.

You Can Help Stop an Extinction

2007-04-26T15:13:00.002-04:00

ganked from http://blog.myspace.com/champiroturtle

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Please help us!
Current mood: scared
Category: Pets and Animals

So, by now you know all about how dire my chances of survival are – mine and all the other leatherback turtles.

In February, about the time I was laying my last batch of eggs, more than 200 sea turtle scientists and conservationists got together in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (I like the sound of that place….myrtle…turtle) and wrote a letter to the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez, to save our beach. Somebody delivered it to the president's office in March.

Do you want to help us? Costa Rican law already says that the privately owned properties in the Las Baulas Marine Park should be acquired by the government to protect the beach. And a bunch of folks have already raised $5 million to pay the owners.

You could help me by sending an email to President Oscar Arias Sanchez to encourage him to protect our beach. It's easy. Just go to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project
and do it!

Thanks!!!

Stopping (Optical and I.D.) Data Theft

2007-04-25T15:19:00.000-04:00

Fiber optic cables are used for networking computers together. But hi-tech cabling may not be as secure to hackers and crackers as businesses think, according to "The Register", a top online technology daily. According to the article, hackers armed with small clip-on monitoring devices manufactured by Canada's EXFO, could patch into networks and their computers and read data. They say only 0.1dB of the optical rating of light needs to be captured in order to snatch data from an optical link.

A hacking device was discovered on a Verizon cable in 2003, according Swiss encryption machine company Infoguard. The perpetrators were not caught. According to the company such data taps can be avoided by encrypting the data going through the fiber optic cables. Other ways to protect the data are given by one of the people who commented on the article on The Register's website.

Here is an encryption technique reported last year by two US researchers. (Found via SANS Institute's excellent newsletter).

Below is a small sampling of the useful stuff SANS has. You don't need to be a computer and information security specialist to make use of this:

"5 Ways to Stop Identity Theft".
Published April 20, 2007 on the SANS Insitute's tip of the day!
Five Ways to Protect against Identity Theft

1. The next time you order checks, have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name. Your bank will know.
2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED".
3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers.
4. Don't list any telephone number. You can always write it on the check at the time of the transaction. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address or your work address.
5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Store in a secure place and refresh it when you change cards." So, that's from SANS Institute.

Wondering what, if anything else you can do to protect your identity, in this day of ID theft? Check this out: LifeLock.. (Thanks to the Security Curmudgeon over at Attrition for posting info on these guys to their dataloss list.

Melting Ice Shelves, Kryptonite & Green Deserts

2007-04-24T23:50:00.000-04:00

So you missed this Wednesday's show? No worries, here's the lowdown!

We featured info on habitat corridors in the ocean,turtle and conservation biologists versus evil beach developers, and a report on a seminar by Canadian marine geologist on melting icebergs, ice shelf of Greenland, and Labrador's natural gas-laden Makkovik Bank. Dr. Chris Woodworth-Lynas gave the seminar, at Memorial University, in Newfoundland.. He's also part of Canada's Northern Light mission to Mars.

Here is some bonus, apres show, news: the melting of the world's second-largest ice sheet has caused part of Greenland to be separated into another island; and an article on how scientists are finding that
Greenland and Antarctic glaciers melting into the ocean".

We also looked at ongoing greening of the desertified Sahel region, in Africa. The United States Geological Survey has some really good pictures illustrating some of the degradation.

We were pleased to report that there's finally some action (sort of) from the Canadian government on the contaminated pet food scandal. Our federal Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Chuck Strahl, has asked the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to look into the matter and see if there is anyway to avoid such a mess in the future. Although the CFIA maintains a food recall list for us humans, they do not have such a list for pet or livestock food. This may change depending on the results of the CFIA's investigation. We'll keep you posted.

And we looked at some truly spacey news: crystallographers at Canada's National Research Council & their role in discovering the atomic structure of 'kryptonite'. The substance has the same chemical formula as Superman's rocky nemesis.

The team that cracked the code on the makeup of the mineral are scientists right here in Ottawa! They used a specialized X-Ray machine, and they are Dr. Pamela Whitfield and Dr. Yvon LaPage.

The new mineral isn't radioactive at all, though. And that's a good thing. Or as Whitfield put it, she's been working with the mineral for weeks but 'hasn't grown a second head'. Also it cannot by international chemical nomenclature rules be called kryptonite as it contains 0% krypton. Which, for the record, is a gas.

Here's the lowdown from the NRC, which I've jazzed up with links.

"Canada's National Research Council and U.K.'s Natural History Museum Have Uncovered Kryptonite

April 25, 2007, Ottawa, Canada — Superman's nemesis, kryptonite, is no longer the stuff of fiction. A new mineral matching its unique chemistry – as described in the film Superman Returns – has been identified by Canadian and British scientists.

Kryptonite's devastating power is the bane of Superman stories, where exposure to its large green crystals causes the superhero to weaken. Unlike its famous fictional counterpart however, the new mineral is white, powdery and not radioactive. And, rather than originating from outer space, the real Kryptonite was found in Serbia by mining firm Rio Tinto. Unable to identify the unusual mineral's composition, Rio Tinto enlisted the help of mineralogist Dr. Chris Stanley of London's Natural History Museum.

Before a mineral can be classifed as new and distinct, it must first go through rigorous analysis so that its chemical and optical properties, including its crystal structure, can be determined. Typically a mineral sample contains crystals large enough so that techniques, such as single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), can be used to determine crystal structure and composition. In the case of this new material, the sample's crystals were too small. Consequently, Dr. Stanley called upon the sophisticated analytical facilities of Canada's National Research Council and on the expertise of NRC researchers Drs. Pamela Whitfield and Yvon Le Page to analyze and validate the mineral's crystal structure.

"Knowing the crystal structure of a material enables scientists to calculate its other physical properties – such as its elasticity or thermochemical properties," explains NRC's Dr. Le Page, an expert in the field of crystallography, adding that "being able to analyze and validate all the properties of a mineral, both chemical and physical, brings us closer to confirming that it is indeed unique." "However, finding out that the chemical composition of a material submitted for review is an exact match to an invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite, this was the coincidence of a lifetime," he adds.

The U.K.'s Dr. Stanley, who has worked to identify many new minerals, was the one to reveal the true identity of the mysterious new material. "Towards the end of my research, I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula – sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide – and was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther's character from a Metropolis museum in the film Superman Returns. The new mineral does not contain fluorine and is white rather than green, but in all other respects the chemistry matches that of the rock containing kryptonite."

Approximately 30 – 40 new minerals are discovered each year. Each must be registered with the International Mineralogical Association, the Commission on new Minerals and Mineral Names. These agencies compare new submitted material against a vast database of all known minerals, to determine if the newly-discovered rock is genuinely unique.

In addition to the investigative work done by Britain's Natural History Museum and Canada's National Research Council, scientists from Natural Resources Canada, the Geological Survey of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Nature have collaborated to ensure that the new mineral is recognized by the international scientific community. The mineral will be formally named when it is described in the European Journal of Mineralogy later this year.

Recognized globally for research and innovation, Canada's National Research Council (NRC) is a leader in the development of an innovative, knowledge-based economy for Canada through science and technology.

The Natural History Museum is internationally renowned as a centre of scientific expertise and specialists supplying authoritative identifications and information on a worldwide range of animals, plants, minerals and fossils. The Museum holds extensive reference collections of well-characterized minerals, ores and rocks and has one of the best Earth Science reference libraries in the UK."

Off and Running Like A Herd of Turtles: 3rd prize!

2007-04-22T11:34:00.000-04:00

Woo-hoo! Champiro made a last minute surprise dash to get the bronze - she cam in 3rd! Go team Chelonia! :)

Get This Widget!Great Turtle Race

It's another day in the Great Turtle Race. And I found some links to the group that tagged the turtles with their satellite backpacks. They are called TOPP, which is short for Tagging of Pacific Pelagics. TOPP also runs a census of sea creatures.

As you can see, the show has picked a turtle named Champiro to win the race. Why her? Because she is doing her best to preserve the leatherback turtle species: she's laid more eggs over her lifetime than the others have. She has come up from 7th to 4th place in about as many days. Information on her place in the race, the depth she is swimming at, and how far she is from hitting the finish line, is on the little graphic, in the top corner of this post. Champiro also has her own blog, with this alarming entry! Playa Grande beach, the last Pacific nesting site for the turtles is in trouble - people want to build condos on it! :-(

TOPP says the Great Turtle Race was conceived of as a way to protect and conserve the "critter highway" in the ocean that runs between the Galapagos and Central America, that is needed to preserve wildlife. Animals use transport corridors just like we do, to get from breeding and mating zones to nesting places, etc. etc. They use resources just like we do. And they need all of these things to raise their families - just like we do.

TOPP has a blog which they call On TOPP of the World. :)

Was Toxin Added on Purpose? Pet Food Recall Widens.

2007-04-20T08:51:00.000-04:00

Another contaminated grain product used in pet food (and possibly other animal feed), has been discovered. This time it's rice protein concentrate. And it's contaminated, again with melamine.

Because of this the pet food recall has widened to include some brands that contain the tainted rice protein concentrate. This is because melamine has been found not just in imported wheat gluten but also rice protein concentrate; both contaminated grain products are from China, according to the Houston Chronicle's online news outlet, chron.com. The Chronicle also says there are South African press reports indicating that corn gluten, contaminated with melamine, has been found in that country's pet food.

Wilbur Ellis Co., which imported the tainted rice product, found the contaminant in rice protein from one supplier, Reuter's reports. They are voluntarily recalling all of the rice protein concentrate its feed division sold to pet food manufacturers.

The FDA is mulling over if the contamination might not have been deliberate. They say that adding melamine can boost the apparent protein content of the grain products.

Racing Leather Clad Females of the Pacific

2007-04-19T15:03:00.000-04:00

The sun, the sea... the sands of Playa Grande.

Wait a minute! This is a science blog. What's with *that* title - it sounds like a cheesy badly written grindhouse flick. But it isn't. There isn't a film - this is real time. And they are female. They are swimming in the Pacific (or at least hanging out in the surf after having been on the tropical beaches of Playa Grande in Costa Rica). And they really are clad in leather, at least on their backs, sort of. And they really are 'racing' to their island getaway.

But they are almost certainly the wrong species for you - they are herptiles. Which means they have scaly skin, among other things. But hey, this is a race. Who cares if they are the wrong species?

What are they? Turtles. leatherback turtles to be specific. There are less than 100 of them left in the wild in some places! Marine turtles need all the help they can get.

In order to raise awareness of the need for sea turtle conservation, and the precarious existence of the leatherback sea turtle conservation agencies and several businesses have organized something they're calling the Great Turtle Race.

It features 11 sea turtles 'racing' as they migrate from their nesting sites in Costa Rica across the pacific just over about 500 miles to the Galapagos Islands (a place of which you may have heard, because Charles Darwin and how he came to his theories).

The turtles are wearing gear that allows a satellite to pick up their position, speed and other things like depths, in REAL TIME folks - and then this is beamed back to a computer where the data is updated every 10 minutes. So you can see how the turtles are doing! Plus you can pick a turtle to cheer on. It's actually kind of fun - you can sign up for updates.

The Great Turtle Race started this Monday and goes to the 29th of April.

Check out Dr. Turtle, based at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Also, at least one of the turtles has a blog. But Drexelina, as she is called, doesn't seem to be moving off the ebach very fast!

You can pick a turtle and cheer it on, and donate to help save the critically endangered and very cool leatherback sea turtles so there will be some around for your kids or grand kids or grandkids grandkids.

Which would be a good thing.

RIP, Dr, Liviu Librescu, Scientist & Hero 1932 - 2007.

2007-04-18T01:50:00.001-04:00

One of the people who died in the horrible shooting at Virginia Tech was an engineering professor and internationally-known researcher in aerodynamics who died holding off the gunman while his students escaped through the window.

Dr. Librescu authored several books (one came out only last year). He was joint-editor of 7 journals, winner of over a dozen awards, and a holocaust survivor. He was to have given a keynote address in June in Korea at a scientific conference.

Thanks to user moosehead-beer over on the scientists of LJ, for the lead and most of this info.

Some of the other professors and students who were shot dead are listed here.

Our Earth Week/Astronomy Day Special!

2007-04-17T23:53:00.000-04:00

Join Let X = X for our Earth Week/Astronomy Day special broadcast, this Wednesday, April 17th. Listen to us live, via webcast between 9:15 and 9:30 am! You'll need Real Player but you can download it from that page.

As usual, I had a half hour of stuff so half of it hit the virtual cutting room floor.

To Bee or Not To Bee: Cell Phones Behind Colony Collapse Disorder?

2007-04-15T20:04:00.000-04:00

Science is stranger than fiction, frequently. As I like to say - science is silly, science is scary, science is sexy. File this one solidly under scary!

By now you may have heard of CCD, or Colony Collapse Disorder, which has been seriously depopulating the bees agriculture depends upon, throughout the US, Europe and, possibly, Canada. There are a lot of theories as to what the culprit is behind the mass die-off. Mostly it's a mystery.

Now there is a new one which sounds a bit like something written by the folks who penned Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, or some other B-grade sci-fi flick: Cell phones and their microwave transmitters may be behind the CCD that is wiping out bee populations in North America and Europe. I wish it was a joke! Nope - the theory goes that bees navigation is throw off by the radiation involved in mobile telephone systems. This comes from researchers at Landau University, according to the Independant's article.

Back in March, an alternative health reporter posted that Electromagnetic Radiation could be behind the bee die off. he ahs some interesting references and one link I saw that seems to make some sense is from HESE, the Human Ecological Social Economical project.. Again the idea is that EM from a variety of sources, in particular anything using what are known as VLF or ELF waves - very low frequency/extra-low frequency) which have been shown to have effects on some animals health, particularly so near power corridors.

I did a bit of research into this back in the late 80's when I
was bored and had time to poke around at U of O in the Vanier library. Unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the books and publications I read. It was forever ago! I looked into it because I used to get migraines whenever I visited an aunt who's place backed up onto the huge power corridor that runs through part of Scarborough, in Toronto.

Here is some older information the US National Institute of Health on effect of EM in the work place.

Pesticides, Pollutants, Linked to Diabetes & Insulin Resistance

2007-04-15T17:30:00.000-04:00

Pathophysiology researchers at the Universities of Kyungpook (in Korea) and at U of Minnesota have just published "Association Between Serum Concentrations of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Insulin Resistance Among Nondiabetic Adults". The study shows links between blood serum levels of certain pollutants (like organophosphorous pesticides and PCB's) and onset of type 2 diabetes. Previously, the researchers had shown a link between this and diabetes itself.

Persistent Organic Pollutants are also known as POPs, for short. POPs are pollutants tend to bind to fat. Because of this they tend to accumulate in fatty tissue in animals especially. Then if another animal eats them, they concentrate up the food chain. This is kniown as bioaccumulation, and bioconcentration.

As Edie's Sam Bond points out it's,possible that being obese simply means more of the chemicals are likely to accumulate in the system. More fatty tissue means more sites for the pollutants to bind to. As he says, this is what is seen in the wild with top-chain predators like polar bears, for example, that have a lot of fatty tissue.

It's not just pesticides and PCB's that do this. Some metals do as well, for example methylmercury, which is lipid (fat) soluble.

The United Nations Environmental Program or UNEP, has more information on POPs here. There is an international agreement on POPs, known as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Canada was the first country to ratify the Stockholm Convention. More information on Canada's strategy for dealing with these chemicals is here.

Star Party, April 21st - and you're invited!

2007-04-10T01:47:00.000-04:00

International Astronomy Day is coming! Many events are planned across North America. And most are open to the the public and families.

In the US, Astronomy Magazine is having a contest with giveaways. Plus, they have a list of events across the USA. The University of Arizona invites you to "Share the Stars" as they host an Astronomy Day for the public.

Here in Canada the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has a list of Canadian events.

For those in Ottawa, click here for plans. If you are in Kingston, click here. Information on International Astronomy Day for residents of Victoria is here.

And don't forget this: the Ottawa Valley Astronomy & Observers Group is also inviting everyone to come out to their free outdoor event. It's all day on Sat. April 21st, in the parking lot next to Chapter's in the East end at 2401 City Park Drive, near Ogilvy Road. That's from 10 am to 10 pm Saturday April 21st. You'll be able to check out different sizes and kinds of telescope. Plus view the sun safely with their special filtered telescopes. Also see the moon - even in broad daylight. Plus video imaging of star clusters and galaxies.
Astrophotography, a slide show, info displays and free handouts.

They will be having a giant public viewing session from sunset to 10 pm - weather permitting, you'll be able to see the rings of Saturn, craters on the moon and lots more. Bring the whole family. If the weather runs foul they will have an indoor display inside Chapter's.

Contaminated Chinese (Wheat Gluten) Blues

2007-04-05T20:52:00.000-04:00

This article will 'dish' a bit on the 'joys' of globalization and on differing safety standards for food and feed products, and environmental standards. And by dish, I mean melamine. Eh? I hear you say. Keep reading!

Earlier this year I reported that the tainting of pet food with contaminated Chinese wheat gluten might be only the tip of a larger iceberg (albeit an iceberg made of contaminated Chinese gluten). That's because wheat gluten is used in a lot of things people and their pets eat. Now various news outlets have reported that the pet food recall has been expanded to include Hill's Prescription Diet DRY m/d pet food, which is manufactured by Menu Foods, as well a brand of dog biscuits as by an Alabama company.

The culprit this time? Contaminated Chinese gluten, once again.

This time the 'magic ingredient' is not aminopterin. This time it's melamine. Yes, that would be... plastic. Melamine is used in North America and in Europe to make plastic dishes and plates. And what do the Chinese use it in? Fertilizer. How terribly scientific of them! Just what plants need, a good dose of plastic. Right, suuuuuuuuure it is.

China Environmental Blog reports from an article in the Washington Post that
"Chinese environmental officers say they are proud of their progress and that Beijing should be judged not by international standards but by how much it has improved."

"People who come here for the first time feel that the environment and the air is not good," said Yu Xiaoxuan, deputy director for construction and environment for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games. "But they do not know how bad the pollution was several years ago." Longtime Beijing residents say the change is striking. Bo Guoping, 60, a retired factory worker who on a recent weekend was flying a kite in one of the city's new parks with her grandson, remarked: "These days, we can see the sky. Before, it was all gray."" from China Environmental News Blog.

But before we leap to any conclusions, let's consider the situation in some villages in China near the Siberian border. Here is an excerpt from an excellent piece by the CS Monitor on how Chinese villagers are being poisoned by industry and are battling to clean up their environment so they survive and don't die early or have children suffering form severe fluoride poisoning because of disreputable industrial practices and terrible government environmental standards.

Here's part of it. I hope you have a strong stomach.

"...small towns like Leifeng and Puxing, which are just a few hundred miles away from those cities, have languished. Good intentions from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) can't solve every problem, and local officials often have little incentive to do the right thing.

The job of fighting for victims of environmental disasters is thus being taken up by growing ranks of activists and lawyers. SEPA did not respond to phone calls or written questions about the pollution in Leifeng and Puxing. "The problem is that despite all the positive rhetoric emanating from Beijing, very little has found its way down to the local level," says Elizabeth Economy, senior Asia researcher with the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "The River Runs Black," on China's environmental crisis.

"The grass-roots ... movement is where the energy is coming from in China," she adds. The plight of Leifeng and Puxing, long ignored by government and media, has become a perfect example of this larger movement. Under the direction of a legal center in Beijing as well as a local law clerk, Leifeng and Puxing villages are fighting for their day in court.

Villagers' concerns began in 2001, when hundreds of pigs and chickens mysteriously died. After Chinese New Year 2002, scores of people were stricken with illnesses ranging from debilitating headaches and severe stomach problems to heart palpitations. After wearing freshly washed clothes, many developed strange rashes. Those who worked at the factory started to talk about what went on inside and fingered the likely culprit: toxic waste.

"At first we didn't believe it," recalls Cao Qingren, a local law clerk who is fighting for the villages. "Then we realized the water must be bad.""

Just peachy.

Well then... Has it changed your mind, gentle reader? Thought not. Talk about use at your own risk! This reporter will be going out of her way to avoid purchasing ANYTHING with gluten in it and anything from China that can be ingested, given their laws on aminopterin and melamine use. Who knows what will be found next in Chinese food products. Plutonium? Arsenic? Well I certainly hope not but who knows? There doesn't seem to be a lot of oversight at this point.

Besides, think of all the energy that will be saved and greenhouse gases avoided not burning fuel to lug contaminated trade goods across the Pacific from China to North America.

Tea vs. Cortisol, Tarantula Travel + Nano WC's

2007-04-04T02:32:00.000-04:00

This week's show features remastered rebroadcasts of 3 of the last year's reports:

You can click the link at the side to listen live! ----------}

Some species of spider have been found to have silk spinning organs not just in the regular place - on their bellies, but also on their feet. Researchers say this may change what is known about spider evolution. Plus, a British study into the relaxing effects of black tea and how it reduces and ameliorates levels and effects of the stress hormone cortisol. And a bathroom that cleans itself is now possible thanks to Aussie experimenets with nano-particulate coatings for surfaces, that are self-cleaning and that kill e.coli. Good news for hospitals and other places.