Scientists Detect First Saturn-Like Ringed Object Outside Solar System
(Published on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:13:28 GMT)
An international team of astrophysicists has identified the first object outside our solar system with an extensive system of rings similar to those surrounding Saturn, the sixth planet from our sun.
The scientists were analyzing 54 days worth of puzzling deep-space images collected by a global network of special telescopes when they realized they had discovered a colossal set of dusty rings with a diameter spanning tens of millions of kilometers. By comparison, Saturns icy rings measure a mere 300,000 kilometers across.
The newly-discovered rings of dust and other cosmic debris surround a mysterious object that orbits a relatively young, sun-like star in a system located 420 light years from Earth
Lead scientist Eric Mamajek of Rochester University in New York says it could be a huge gas-giant planet, a small low-mass star, or a type of failed star called a brown dwarf. More data to calculate the objects mass is needed before they can determine what it is. He says another intriguing mystery is the source of two pronounced gaps separating the enormous outermost rings, which may suggest the late stages of planet formation or the formation of moons.
The worldwide network of telescopes used to make the new discovery is part of the international Super-WASP and ASAS projects, which search outer space for new planets. WASP stands for Wide Angle Search for Planets. ASAS stands for All Sky Automated Survey. In late 2010, the scientists began analyzing the data the telescopes first collected in 2007.
The new findings of the Rochester University-led study will be published in an upcoming issue of The Astronomical Journal.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Study: Milky Way Galaxy Has 160 Billion Planets
(Published on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:54:20 GMT)
Earth could have as many as160 billion planetary neighbors in its home galaxy, according to astronomers.
In a new study,they conclude that each of the estimated 100 billion suns in the vast stellar spiral known as the Milky Way has at least one planet orbiting around it. And scientists say the huge number of these so-called exo-planets increases the likelihood that life might eventually be discovered on at least one of them.
Because they could not possibly count every planet in the Milky Way galaxy -- a pinwheel of stars more than 120 thousand light years across -- scientists analyzed selected data from observations of a small field of just 100 million distant stars, and then made an estimate of the number of planets in the entire galaxy.
The six-year project involved observations by 42 astronomers from around the world. A smaller group of scientists sifted through the data for evidence of microlensing, a kind of cosmic magnifying glass in which the light of a background star is bent, and brightened, by the gravitational field of another star passing directly in front of it.
When that foreground star is also circled by one or more planets with their own gravitational fields, the brightness of the microlensing shows a tell-tale fluctuation.
That can last hours or days, depending upon the size of the exoplanet and the duration of its orbit, according to Kailash Sahu of the Johns Hopkins University Space Telescope Institute in Maryland. Sahu helped develop the gravitational microlensing technique in the mid-1990s. The technique enables astronomers to detect very small and very distant planets, Sahu said.
This is actually sensitive to finding planets far away from us, all the way to the outskirts of the galaxy. So we can get a real census of planets throughout the galaxy rather than a little box around the sun.
Sahu said many of the stars astronomers analyzed have one or more planets. They found about 1500 of these alien solar systems within 50 light years of Earth.
According to scientists, two-thirds of all the exoplanets they detected with microlensing are probably about five times the size of Earth, and about one-fifth were the size of the gas giant Jupiter. But it is the Earth-sized planets that have captured the imagination of astronomers like Sahu.
The Holy Grail will be to find planets, really Earth-like planets, with some things that can actually support life, said Sahu. And so now we find that, yes indeed, Earth-like planets are common. So, the next thing would be to try to find which are the planets that can hold water and sustain life
So far, astronomers using a combination of ground-based and earth-orbiting space telescopes, including the U.S. space agencys planet-hunting Kepler mission, have confirmed the existence of more than 700 planets outside our solar system. Another two-thousand candidate exoplanets are waiting to be verified
The survey estimating as many as 160 billion planets in the Milky Way Galaxy is described in the January 12th issue of the journal Nature.
Debris from a Doomed Russian Spacecraft Lands in Pacific Ocean
(Published on Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:39:38 GMT)
Debris from a Russian space probe that was intended to travel to a moon of Mars has apparently fallen into the Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of Chile.
Russias space agency, Roscosmos, had reported that the unmanned 14-ton Phobos-Grunt would enter the Earths atmosphere on Sunday but that the exact time and location were unknown.
Roscosmos said that only small fragments of the spacecraft weighing a total of about 200 kilograms would survive re-entry and that some 11 tons of unused toxic rocket fuel on board would burn up
News of the spacecrafts fragments crashing into the ocean come from the Russian military. The space agency has yet to comment. There had been earlier fears of the debris possibly landing in South American territory
The satellite was launched November 9. But it got stuck in Earth orbit and has been losing altitude since then.
The failure of the $165 million mission, which was designed to collect soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos, is among a series of recent setbacks for Russias space program five decades after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarins pioneering space flight.
Last August, an unmanned supply ship bound for the International Space Station crashed in Siberia.
Antibiotics Breed Drug Resistance in Pigs
(Published on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:45:39 GMT)
Pigs given low doses of antibiotics had more E. coli in their guts, and that bacteria showed an increased resistance to antibiotics, according to new research
The study confirms the routine practice of feeding antibiotics to food animals increases drug resistance in the bacteria living in those animals
The practice is common at large livestock operations worldwide. But experts say it is helping spawn new types of antibiotic-resistant disease organisms, fueling a global public health crisis
California executive Tom Dukes had a close call with one such superbug. He got painful stomach cramps a couple years ago. His doctor said it was a serious intestinal condition called diverticulitis and prescribed antibiotics.
Started those on Monday morning and by Tuesday night, I really felt like a million bucks, he says
But a few months later, Dukes got the symptoms again. Again, he got antibiotics. Drug failure
This time, though, they did not work. He wound up in the emergency room, in incredible pain.
Id never encountered anything like this before, Dukes says. Out of all the sports injuries and broken arms and things like that, that all paled in comparison.
Drug-resistant E. coli bacteria were escaping into his abdomen through a tear in his colon. Emergency surgery removed a 20-centimeter section
Doctors had only one type of drug left that would kill the germs. That saved his life.
Dukes is a self-described workout fanatic who spends a couple hours a day in the gym. So how does an otherwise-healthy person get a life-threatening superbug
Although well never know for sure exactly, it seems that the probable cause was basically from eating tainted meat, he says.
Healthy animals vs. sick people
Animals raised for meat at large livestock operations around the world are commonly given antibiotics to prevent disease and to help them grow bigger with less feed. In the United States, more antibiotics are used for healthy animals than for sick people.
Its a controversial practice. In a new study, U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Thad Stanton and colleagues looked at bacteria coming out of pigs fed some of those antibiotics.
They saw increases in about 20 different antibiotic resistance genes, he says, including genes for resistance to one type of antibiotic that was not even fed to the pigs
We also saw increases in E. coli populations, which were unexpected, he says
Stanton notes that most E. coli are harmless, but some do cause disease. And even the harmless ones can pass resistance genes to their not-so-harmless cousins. Long-running debate
This study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is just the latest round in a debate that stretches back four decades. It has been known for at least that long that feeding livestock antibiotics generates resistance.
But Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian for the National Pork Producers Council says, The bottom line is, what does that mean for either animal health or public health
Wagstrom doubts there is much impact at all. She says controls are in place at every step of the journey, from farm to slaughterhouse to market, to keep bacteria out of the food supply.
The potential adverse effects of that bacteria being resistant are just very, very small. Close to zero.
Over his 25-year career in medicine, he has watched one drug after another fall to antibiotic resistance
The resistance thats showing up in the E. coli that are coming in on meat products from antibiotic-fed farm animals is extremely concerning, he says
U.S. regulators recently restricted the use in livestock of one vital group of antibiotics and are recommending other limits. Critics say much tighter controls are needed
Control issues
But the threats are even greater in the developing world, where regulations and enforcement are weaker, says Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organization for Animal Health, OIE.
More than 100 countries have no appropriate legislation to implement control on those products, he says. In those countries, there is no control on importation, no control on registration, no control on distribution and use.
And Vallat says resistant bacteria can travel anywhere in a globalized world
Experts note that livestock are far from the only source of resistant bacteria. Use and misuse of antibiotics in people is at least as big a problem - perhaps more so
For people like Tom Dukes, who carries the bacteria in his gut, where the bacteria came from is less important than where they go.
I kinda live every day knowing its still there, he says. And if it ever gets out again, that they may not have anything to combat it this time.
Its a fear thats growing for patients and doctors around the world.
Filling the Worlds Rice Bowl - with Less Water
(Published on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:46:50 GMT)
Rice feeds more than half of the worlds eight billion people. It thrives in flooded areas and grows where other crops cannot survive. But paddy rice consumes more water than any other crop. And as drought conditions persist in parts of the world and water resources dwindle, rice experts are increasingly looking for ways to conserve water while meeting global demand.
Irrigated rice uses up to 39 percent of global water withdrawals for irrigation. Bas Bouman, Head of the Crop and Environmental Sciences Division at the International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) in the Philippines, said rice needs a lot of water because much of the water is lost from the field through seepage, percolation, and evaporation.
In California, where farming is more of a science, Agronomist Cass Mutters with the University of Californiasaid water thats applied, if it is not used by a crop, will have two ultimate destinations or fates, if you will. One is it either percolates deep into the soil and back into the groundwater, or it runs off into surface water, Mutters explained.
But traditional production of 1 kilogram of rice depletes about 4,500 kilograms of water, said Bharat Sharma, Principal Researcher and Head of the New Delhi office of the International Water Management Institute in an email interview. The numbers are higher where irrigationsystems are inefficient.
Population growth and rising demand have increased pressure on agriculture and water resources. According to a NASA studyof global groundwater, some of the worlds over-exploited areas are in northwest India. These are also the regions which are highly critical for ensuring the food security of the country, as they produce surplus grains to meet the food deficit of several other regions, said Sharma.
Some governments have mandated that farmers switch to other crops, which take less water per kilogram of output, said Janet Larsen, Director of Research at the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. She cited Egypt as an example of a country that has cut back on rice production, largely because of water use. But I think the ultimate goal for researchers out there is doing conventional breeding, figuring out how to get more crop per drop of water.
Edward John Sadler of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed that wheat and crops that do not grow in flooded areas have a potential to produce food with less water. But he suggested that a cultural adherence to rice in some regions makes switching unlikely.
More crop per drop
USDA engineers have been researching ways to use less water while growing rice, such as running a pipe through the fields. In parts of the U.S. like the lower Mississippi River Valley, Sadler said the practice is to place the water supply at the top paddy and then let the water cascade to the lower fields once the top paddy is flooded.
AP
Water flows from an irrigation pipe into a rice field near Scott, Arkansas (File)
What they did is they put the pipe in place and filled each paddy at the same time all the paddies at once from that downslope poly pipe. And that allowed them to predict the completion time better, said Sadler. In the U.S., fields are not always right next to the farm. Theyre scattered over 50-60 kilometers. And therefore, somebody has to run around and check.
Sadler said adding the pipe saved about 20-25 percent of the water used in the process. And placing monitoring equipment to remotely report water levels or using sprinklers to irrigate rice can help control water flow as well.
Farmers can also adopt a water-saving technology called Alternate Wetting and Drying[AWD], in which they let their fields fall dry for a number of days before re-irrigating them, said IRRIs Bouman. If applied correctly, AWD can maintain yields with 15-30 percent of water savings.
In regions where water is scarce, the system of Aerobic Rice, in which rice is grown without ponded water and saturated soil, uses 50 percent less water and produces 20-30 percent less yield. But Bouman said this new technology still needs more research and development.
And new varieties like short-season rice significantly reduce water use. Rice produced 40-45 years ago required 160 days from seed to harvest, compared to 135 days for short-season varieties. That, according to Mutters, has reduced the amount of water for rice production by about 20 percent over the last 30 years.
REUTERS
A Chinese farmer checks hybrid rice at a test field in Tiandu county, Sanya, in south Chinas Hainan province (File)
Pioneered by China, hybrid rice - a cross-bred robust variety - has increased land and yield productivity while reducing water use. According to Agricultural Economist Eric Wailes of the University of Arkansas, a Chinese paddy field yields about 4,355 kilograms of milled rice, or table rice. And if we look at then how many liters does it take to produce 1 kilogram of rice in China You know, thats approximately about 1,750 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of rice.
In contrast, Wailes said India, which is on the verge of adopting hybrid rice, produces about 2,211 kilograms of rice per hectare. And so, how much water does [it] take to produce a kilogram in India Well, it takes about 3,500 liters 3,500 liters in India, compared to only 1,750 [in China,] said Wailes.
Genetic modification, according to Wails, could coax another 30-40 percent improvement in water efficiency per kilogram of rice. In other words, instead of 1,750, I think you can get that probably down to 1,000 liters per kilogram. And thats kind of at the levels that our other major crops grains are using, he said.
But in Boumans view, genetic modification is unlikely to have a big role in reducing irrigation demands because much of the water used in rice fields is lost to seepage, percolation, and evaporation.
Good land management and technology
But good land management, such as keeping the soil compact and level, and building channels and dikes, can make water use more efficient. Nicole Van Vleck, a rice farmer and manager of Montna Farms in Yuba City, California, said all of the fields are laser-leveled.
We use whats called a drag scraper, which is outfitted with GPS [i.e., Global Positioning System] on it, Van Vleck said. And so we can maintain level fields each and every year. And this really helps water efficiency on an annual basis.
AP
A flock of geese take flight from a rice field near East Nicolaus, California (File)
Half of the water drained from Van Vlecks farm goes into neighboring wetlands. She said 60 percent of the food consumed by wintering water fowl in the Pacific flyway comes from rice fields. I have a field thats covered sometimes with hundreds and hundreds of birds - sometimes thousands of birds, she said, describing the view from her office window.
In urban areas of the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, rice paddies act as flood buffers holding water and capturing rainfall. And saline ocean water that seeps into the ground along coastal areas in places like Egypt is offset by having rice fields, which again, have fresh water sit on top of [them] and push that salinization back down, said Wailes.
Despite rices obvious functionality, Bouman said there is no single silver bullet to help rice farmers conserve water. We do have an array of solutions, and it will be highly site-specific where which solution is most appropriate.
Internet Blackout Has US Lawmakers Thinking Twice
(Published on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:39:46 GMT)
Some of the most popular sites on the Internet have gone dark, part of a protest that appears to be making some inroads with U.S. lawmakers on Web piracy measures.
Online encyclopedia Wikipediablacked out its English language website for 24 hours, alongside blog Boing Boing. Social news website Reddit plans to go dark for part of the day, and popular search engine Google has replaced its normally colorful and interactive logo with a black censor bar.
These are just some of the online protests aimed at The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently before the House of Representatives, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) under consideration in the Senate.
Watch Alex Villarreals Video Report
The measures are designed to crack down on the sales of pirated U.S. products overseas. The House bill currently includes a provision on blacklisting sites that contain pirated content.
Supporters of the legislation include the film and music industry, which often sees its products pirated illegally. The industry says the measures are needed to protect intellectual property and jobs.
Technology companies such as Google and other Internet giants like Yahoo and Twitter say the bills could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free speech rights if passed.
Already, the blackout has caused some U.S. lawmakers to reconsider their support for the legislation, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
Rubio announced his change of heart on Facebook Wednesday, urging fellow lawmakers to take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.
Republican Senator John Cornyn from Texas also withdrew his support for the legislation, calling for a more balanced approach.
Meanwhile, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Ohio Republican John Boehner admitted Wednesday that there was now a lack of consensus on the bills.
Last week, the White House acknowledged that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response. But the statement said, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.
The White House also said it will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation to provide new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while defending free expression, privacy, security and innovation.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Study: Nature Creates Buffer Against Climate Change
(Published on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:08:04 GMT)
The most extensive study ever of biodiversity confirms what scientists have long believed, that natural ecosystems are healthier and more resilient when they support a large variety of plant life.
Reported in the Journal Science, this globe-spanning research finds that abundant forms of plant life keep soils more fertile and productive, and help to buffer ecosystems against the stresses of a changing climate
The study focused on semi-arid ecosystems which cover 40 percent of the planet and support 40 percent of the human population. Co-author David Eldridge, with the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at Australias University of New South Wales, says these dry lands are also among the ecosystems most at risk from changes in management, changes in rainfall, changes in climate.
An international team of scientists studied dry lands on every continent, except Antarctica. Eldridge points out that on each, they marked out 30-by-30-meter plots, inventoried the plant life within and measured how it cycled carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, elements considered essential for life on earth.
We also measured other attributes that we thought might be related, things like temperature, soil texture... how much sand or clay the soil has got in it, slope, latitude, longitude, all those attributes and used a modeling system to be able to pick out what some of the drivers were.
Eldridge says while there were differences among the areas - from the dry woodlands in Western Australia to the high alpine grasslands in Chile - the overall findings were remarkably similar.
Even with this huge diversity of different types of plant communities, the fact that when we analyzed our data from more than 200 sites, that even in these really diverse communities, diversity of plants came out as being a highly significant driver of how functional the soil was
And that wide variety of plant species was even more important than other factors, Eldridge says, such as annual rainfall and microbes in the soil. Loss of biodiversity reduces those services the ecosystem can provide.
If we go from a system where we have a lot of species to very, very few species, then we know that the ability of the soil to produce carbon, to allow water to infiltrate to hold together, actually break down.
The changing climate is also likely to reduce plant diversity and increase the areas affected by the desertification now underway in many developing countries. Eldridge says, for example, in a warmer world, sand content in soils would be expected to rise, lowering its productivity.
What this shows is that anything that results in increased temperatures is ultimately going to reduce the functionality of dry land soils. Our diverse community of plants is providing a buffer against increased climate change.
Indian Internet Lawsuit Puts Spotlight on Freedom of Expression
(Published on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:45:43 GMT)
In India, Internet giants such as Google and Facebook are fighting a lawsuit after the government authorized their prosecution for online content on their sites deemed to be offensive. The case has put the spotlight on free speech in the worlds largest democracy
The criminal lawsuit filed by the editor of New Delhi-based Urdu weekly Akbari accuses 21 Internet companies of violating Indian law. Vinay Rai alleged that online material on their websites has the potential to incite religious conflict.
Rai said his colleagues brought to his attention images of Prophet Muhammad which could offend Muslims. He cited other images and text which could hurt sentiments of Hindus and Christians. Rai wants Internet companies to screen content before it is posted.
Google and Facebook have asked the Delhi High Court to dismiss the case against them. In an appeal, they said it is impossible to filter all content or stop individuals from posting material online.
Editor Rai filed the case after the government indicated its approval for the prosecution. The official go-ahead came weeks after the government also raised a similar demand.
Voluntary framework
Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal told Internet company representatives to come up with a voluntary framework to keep offensive material off the net. After confronting them with photos and material derogatory of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, he said the companies had not cooperated.
Both the court case and the governments demands have stoked fears of net censorship in the worlds largest democracy.
Advocacy groups say the dispute between authorities and websites began simmering last year when India tightened laws to block content which could be deemed offensive. Citizens and officials can ask sites to block objectionable material and failure to comply within 36 hours can attract penalties or imprisonment of up to seven years.
Sunil Abraham, with the Center for Internet and Society in India, said these rules have the potential to curtail debate and discussion on the net.
These limits are vague. They allow for all sorts of subjective tests by private parties and we predicted they would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression online, Abraham said. Policy in India has been headed in a very worrisome direction.
Abraham pointed out that one of his organizations recent studies indicates that, faced with the threat of stiff penalties, most service providers removed content when asked to do so, even when it was not offensive or controversial.
Free media
The government insists its objective is not to encroach on the fundamental right of free speech guaranteed by Indias democratic constitution. The clarification came from Minister Kapil Sibal after his meetings with Internet companies last month.
This government does not believe in censorship, noted Sibal. This government does not believe in either directly or indirectly interfering in the freedom of the press, and we have demonstrated that time and again
India does have a vibrant free media and Internet access is largely free, unlike in China. But in a country with a history of religious violence, authorities have long tussled with the dilemma of balancing free speech with the need to not inflame sentiments among religious groups. India was one of the first countries to ban Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses. Other books and articles have also faced bans. Many are challenged in courts and several have been overturned
Now the focus is on the Internet and questions are being raised about whether the web should or can be policed.
Online freedom
In a remark widely quoted in the domestic media, a judge hearing the case had warned websites that like China, India might be compelled to block some of them if they did not create means to curb material seen as offensive
However, Abraham from the Center of Internet and Society hopes that, as the latest case navigates its way through Indian courts, online freedom will come up the winner
I think the executive in India has always been very conservative in freedom of expression. It is usually the courts in India that protect freedom of expression, the precedent, Abraham said. So we are every hopeful that the current case is in the appropriate venue, and we are confident that, as in the past, the judiciary in India will stand on the side of freedom of expression
With 100 million people surfing the web, India has the worlds third largest number of Internet users after China and the United States.
Scientists Confirm Martian Origin of Moroccan Meteorites
(Published on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:09:26 GMT)
Scientists have confirmed that a rocky meteor that broke apart in the atmosphere and crashed last July came from Mars. The space-faring stones, perhaps blasted free of the Red Planet by an ancient planetary collision, are the first documented Martian debris to fall to Earth in 50 years. The rare meteorites have been scooped from the African sands by collectors and dealers, who are selling them for thousands of dollars.
The Martian meteors fiery fall through Earths atmosphere last year was seen by Moroccan nomads and military personnel. At about 2:00 a.m. local time on July 18, they were startled by sonic booms and a fireball that one witness said lit the night sky with a yellow and then a green glow, before breaking into pieces and disappearing into the remote desert.
Pieces of that meteor were not located until October, when nomads found the black, heat-scorched stones near the Moroccan village of Tissint. Soon, samples were collected for analysis by scientists, including the international committee of experts that confirmed the meteorites Martian origin.
Experts say the meteor, officially named Tissint by The Meteoritical Society, probably took millions of years to get here after an asteroid or some other large object collided with the Red Planet and blasted thousands of chunks of Martian rock into space.
Chunks of the meteor that struck Earth totaled 6.8 kilograms, with the largest weighing almost a kilogram.
Christopher Herd, a professor of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in Canada, headed the committee of scientists, including some from the U.S. space agency, NASA, that verified the meteorites came from Mars.
Herd says that compared to the four previous meteorites known to be of Martian origin, pieces of the Tissint meteor are especially good specimens because they were found shortly after landing in the Moroccan desert.
Its really fresh, said Herd. Its really glassy looking because its only been on the ground for a few months in a nice dry environment. So, it hasnt been affected in a big way by rain or even wind, that sort of thing that does occasionally happen in the desert.
As soon as Moroccan nomads located the impact site, meteorite hunters moved in to snatch up pieces of the valuable rocks, which have been selling for 10 times the price of gold. Museum curators and scientists, including Herd, scrambled to buy the meteorites before all of them went to the highest bidder.
Herd says the first verified Mars rock to strike Earth in half-a-century offers scientists a rare opportunity to learn about the Red Planet.
We have an incredible array of technology at our disposal now, as opposed to 50 years ago, where we can analyze this rock in amazing detail, he said. Plus, because its only been on Earth for a few months, [that] means that it hasnt been tremendously affected by weather. So, what we analyze in these rocks is more likely to be Martian than from the Earth.
Experts say that only about 100 kilograms of verified Martian rocks are known to exist in the world. But none is in such high demand as last years fiery gift from the Red Planet.
Chinas Netizens React to Stricter Rules on Microblogging
(Published on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:43:36 GMT)
Internet users in China are speaking out about a plan to eliminate anonymity on the countrys popular microblogs, saying that the move will limit their freedoms online.
The plan, roughly outlined by senior propaganda officials in Beijing Wednesday, mandates that Chinese-based microblog operators obtain certified real names from their users upon registering new accounts. In a second phase, existing accounts will also be required to provide real information about their identity.
Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office, justified the governments policy to counter false, illegal and obscene information that might harm the healthy development of the Internet in China.
Wang added that such orderly development is a wish of the Chinese Internet users known as netizens.
On Weibo, Chinas most popular Twitter-like website, bloggers challenged Wangs claim.
Internet user Mengfei asked for convincing proofs that Chinese netizens actually want a name registration system. When I heard this, it made me want to curse, he wrote in a post on Thursday.
A netizen nicknamed Mister Langfeng said that the real name registration system would further limit opportunities for free expression for Chinese Internet users.
China, with an online population of more than 505 million people, is the worlds largest Internet market. The Chinese government blocks Internet access to some U.S.-based social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, but there are many domestic microblogging sites.
Half of Internet users in China regularly use microblogging services and commentators have dubbed 2011 the year of Weibo, with a nearly 300 percent increase in usage from the year before.
Major news events are widely debated on these online services, where anonymity often allows netizens to be more frank.
Traditionally sensitive topics like government corruption, food safety scandals and human rights spark lively discussions on the Internet, despite government efforts to scale down the discussions when they strongly challenge the Communist partys agenda.
Weibo has also proved to be an effective tool in breaking news coverage.
On July 2011, it was a post on Weibo that alerted Chinese mainstream media to a deadly train crash. Microblogs kept the conversation going afterwards, asking the government to explain its late and sloppy rescue management.
The Chinese blogger and journalist who calls himself Michael Anti says that Weibos simple design, which only requires a phone connected to the Internet to post messages, is key to its success.
From the isolated Chinese countryside people can send messages that reach people with influence in Beijing. And, they can dialogue with them. He says if you have encountered cases of corruption and you want to petition them, then it is likely that some mainstream media will pick them up through Weibo.
Anti became an outspoken opponent of real-name registration in early 2011, when Facebook deleted his account because he did not register using his real name.
He complained against Facebooks decision then and continues to oppose online real-name policies in every country. He says, If we link online accounts to real identification, then it decreases the level of freedom one enjoys when using the Internet.
Last December, Chinese authorities announced initial testing of the real-name policy. Municipal governments of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou ordered microblog operators to register users under their real names.
But there has been high-profile opposition to the plan.
Tencent Holdings Ltd, Chinas biggest Internet company, announced earlier this month that it would not implement the real-name system for its popular instant message program, QQ. The company is based in Shenzhen, one of the four pilot cities.
Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder of the China media monitoring website Danwei.org says although authorities said the new system would start in December, not much has changed. I dont think it has actually been implemented anywhere, at least not thoroughly. Because its still possible to do a lot in the Internet without using your real name, including Weibo services.
If authorities do follow through on the plan, Goldkorn agrees with other critics who say that the loss of anonymity will have a big impact on microblogs.
It will certainly have a chilling effect on discussion on Weibo, because a lot of people will be wary of speaking their mind if there is going to be a real name attached to their account. But I dont think its going to kill off Weibo, Goldhorn said.
The governments announcement this week comes as it is struggling with finding the best way to manage public discourse.
In his speech, Wang Chen also insisted on the need for better-trained governments spokespersons who could positively carry out Beijings message to domestic and foreign audiences. The most important thing, he says, is for the spokespersons to provide accurate information based on the facts.
Bird Flu Researchers Postpone Work Amid Bioterrorism Concern
(Published on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:22:28 GMT)
Two separate teams of scientists trying to develop a vaccine for the H5N1 strain of bird flu have agreed to temporarily postpone their research because of growing concern that a highly-infectious version of the virus the researchers are working with could fall into the hands of terrorists or trigger a deadly pandemic
The laboratory-altered strain the scientists are working with is a potent airborne variety of H5N1 that easily could spread among humans. The original H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed 340 people worldwide since it was first detected in 2003.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin in the United States and at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands say they are voluntarily halting their work for 60 days. They say the two months will give governments, international organizations and the scientific community time to determine whether the research can be conducted safely
Biosecurity officials and health experts say that if the potent altered virus reached the general public, it potentially could cause a devastating pandemic. Some fear a worldwide epidemic of airborne bird flu could rival the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak that killed between 20 million and 40 million people in less than two years
The U.S.-based journal, Science and the British journal, Nature, both published the researchers announcement on Friday.
The original H5N1 strain of avian influenza is not transmitted through the air, and it does not spread easily among humans. H5N1 usually only infects people that come into direct contact diseased birds
In December, the journals, Science and Nature, reluctantly agreed to a U.S. government request not to publish key details of the H5N1 experiments because terrorists could use the information to make a biological weapon. It is not clear if or when studies will be published. Washington is funding the H5N1 research
Most H5N1 deaths have occurred in East and Southeast Asia, including China, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Online Blackout Shrinks Support for Anti-Piracy Bills
(Published on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:53:11 GMT)
An online blackout in protest of U.S. anti-piracy proposals has whittled away support for the bills, which are designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas.
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia blacked out its English language website for 24 hours Wednesday, along with the popular blog, Boing Boing. Social news website Reddit also went dark for part of the day. And popular search engine Google joined other websites that, instead of going dark, posted editorial comments. Google replaced its normally colorful and interactive logo with a black censor bar and directed users to a petition against the legislation.
The blackouts were aimed at The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently before the House of Representatives, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) under consideration in the Senate
For now, the bills are pitting the entertainment industry, which sees online pirates increasingly eating away at profits, against technology companies that see the bills as a burden and threat to future growth
The blackout has caused some U.S. lawmakers to withdraw support for the bills, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
Rubio announced his change of heart on Facebook Wednesday, urging fellow lawmakers to take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas also withdrew his support for the legislation, calling for a more balanced approach.
Meanwhile, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican John Boehner of Ohio admitted Wednesday that there was now a lack of consensus on the bills.
Last week, the White House acknowledged online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response. But the statement said, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.
The White House also said it will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation to provide new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while defending free expression, privacy, security and innovation.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Nano Tool Watches Teardrop Protein Destroy Bacteria
(Published on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:06:29 GMT)
California scientists attached a tiny electric circuit to a protein in the human teardrop and watched it destroy invading germs
The unique experiment, a marriage of nanotechnology and microbiology, could lead to new ways of diagnosing cancers and other illnesses in their very early stages
About a hundred years ago, a Scottish biologist discovered that proteins called lysozymes in human tears can kill bacteria. Scientists have studied the enzyme extensively, but molecular biologist Gregory Weiss at the University of California, Irvine set out to learn more
What we didnt know is that once the enzyme latches on to the side of the cell wall of the bacteria, he says, it eats all the way across the bacteria without letting go.
The tiny lysozyme breaks down the cell wall of the much bigger bacterium. Associate physics professor and collaborator Philip Collins says the scientists designed a way to study that by listening in on a molecule.
Collins and Weiss assembled columns of carbon atoms called nanotubes into a tiny transistor - an electronic switch that regulates current, just like what youd find in a computer or a smart phone. Then, Weiss says, they attached it to a single lysozyme molecule.
PG Collins, UC Irvine
University of California, Irvine scientists built an electronic nano circuit and attached it to a lysozyme molecule, to track how it kills bacteria.
The carbon nanotube is conducting electricity and as the enzyme starts going about its motion, as it starts chewing on the walls of bacteria, it changes the conductance and flow of electrons through the carbon nanotube.
Collins says the nanotubes are the worlds smallest wires. You might think of our wiring as being a tiny microphone, thats so small that we can reach and tap into the signal from a single molecule.
Weiss and Collins recorded the signals, and say the data confirmed what is already known about the enzyme
In addition Weiss says, they observed it in different chemical environments. Our technique allows us to see that. [In] previous techniques, reporter molecules would fade and prevent you from watching it for long periods of time. Whereas our technique lets us watch for a really long period of time.
Collins says the work is expanding the envelope to where these circuits can be thought of, not just as transistors or memory, but as real tools for doing new science.
Weiss adds that the research, published this week in Science, could lead to improvements in medical diagnostics
The system were describing in this paper is amazingly sensitive. And so, we think that we can drive this to the point of being able to look for single individual molecules associated with cancer, Weiss says. That means cancer or chronic illnesses could be detected very early and treated with better outcomes.
NASA: 2011 Among Top-Nine Warmest Years Since 1880
(Published on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:19:35 GMT)
The U.S. space agency, NASA, says average global surface temperatures continued an alarming upward trend in 2011, which has been ranked among the top-nine warmest years since 1880.
Scientists worldwide overwhelmingly agree that billions of tons of man-made carbon dioxide emissions pumped into the Earths atmosphere over the last 100 years are largely to blame for increasing global warming
NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York says new data analysis indicates that surface temperatures in 2011 climbed 0.52 degrees Celsius above the average mark from the mid-20th century
The year 2010 is ranked as the hottest since 1880
However, the Goddard analysts say year-to-year temperature fluctuations are not as important as a trend spanning a decade or more. A look at NASAs list finds that 11 of the 12 warmest years on record are occurred in the 21st century - from 2001 to 2011. The other year is 1998
The NASA scientists also note that, so far, the 21st century has been warmer than any decade in the last 100 years
Last year, NASA researchers who conducted a separate study warned that the 21st century could see rapid and catastrophic climate changes if global warming continues rising at its current rate. Scientists predict that people likely would face more frequent and intense storms; severe flooding and drought; and major shifts in rainfall patterns.
The Goddard researchers drew their conclusions from analyzing data collected from a vast global network of weather and research stations, as well as from satellite observations. The average global surface temperature the Goddard analysts used in their calculations is from 1951 to 1980.
Carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases are produced naturally as well as through human activity, such as the burning of fossils fuels for energy.
Strongest Solar Storm in 7 Years Hitting Earth
(Published on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:17:21 GMT)
The biggest solar storm in seven years currently is hitting the Earth, but does not pose a threat to life on the planet.
The U.S. National Weather Service says the blast of solar radiation, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, may disrupt some satellite and electric ground communications as it peaks on Tuesday. The inclement space weather is expected to last until Wednesday
The U.S. weather agency says this weeks CME originated from a moderate x-ray flare that erupted on the surface of the Sun early Monday Universal time (0400 UTC).
The Solar Heliospheric Observatory captured the coronal mass ejection (CME) in this video (which shows the suns activity from January 19 to January 23). Courtesy: SOHO/ESA & NASA
The last time the Sun produced a storm of this intensity was May 2005
The Sun is entering an increasingly violent period of its normal 11-year cycle. This interval of high activity, known as the solar maximum, is expected to peak in 2013.
CMEs are billion-ton clouds of super-heated gas and charged particles that are blasted into space from the Suns upper atmosphere, the corona, at several million kilometers per hour
When the storms plasma and particles strike the Earths protective magnetic field, the interaction produces colorful auroras - the beautiful, harmless light displays that are seen shimmering across the night skies near North and South poles.
Scientists Developing Salt-Tolerant Rice
(Published on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:42:29 GMT)
Scientists are developing a salt-resistant variety of rice.
The move was prompted, in part, by last years Japan tsunami, which flooded some 20,000 hectares of rice paddies.
The rice varieties Japanese farmers were growing in those paddies couldnt survive in salt-contaminated soil
Those ruined paddies might be the first to test out the new rice-growing techniques. Delicate balance
The challenge before scientists, says plant biologist Sophien Kamoun at the Sainsbury Laboratory in the United Kingdom, is, How do you introduce a new trait like salt tolerance into that local variety, while at the same time you maintain all the other traits that make that variety really ideal for that region
Iwate Biotechnology Research Center
Two salt-tolerant rice varieties developed with the new methods. The parent variety, in the middle, is not salt-tolerant.
Plant breeders normally take that ideal variety and mate, or cross, it with one that is salt-tolerant. Some of the offspring would acquire that trait. But they may also differ from the ideal variety in other ways
If you make a cross, for example, with an unrelated variety of rice, you will have thousands of differences, Kamoun says.
Those differences may be good or bad. Accentuating the positive while eliminating the negative may take a decade or more.
Kamoun and colleagues in Japan started instead with a popular high-quality rice variety and, using a technique common in plant breeding, introduced random changes - or mutations - in the plants genes with a chemical.
Then you end up with thousands of plants that have all kinds of changes in their habits, Kamoun says. And then you plant them out there in the field and identify the plants that have particular traits of interest.
Iwate Biotechnology Research Center
New salt-tolerant rice varieties are doing well in greenhouse experiments.
Sequencing lots of genomes
Then Kamouns group did something that would have been too difficult and expensive just a few years ago. They used new technology to sequence the entire genomes of the plants with those traits of interest. They identified precisely what genetic changes were found in plants with the new traits and where those changes appear on the map of the rice genome
Its a big improvement for crop breeders who usually follow rough landmarks in the genetic map to guide their efforts.
Instead of saying, Its between Street A and Street B, you can say, Its exactly this address, says U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Shannon Pinson.
She was not involved in the research. But she says it is exciting not only because it makes plant breeding more precise. She says even when breeders know where in the genetic map to find the genes responsible for a trait, or phenotype, That doesnt mean we know exactly what the gene is, and what the sequence is and what change in that sequence is causing that change in phenotype.
Pinson says the new method hones in on the precise changes in a gene responsible for changes in a trait. That should make it easier to figure out how the gene works
Sophien Kamoun says his colleagues have already improved the salt tolerance of a high-quality rice variety in greenhouse experiments and expect to have it ready for farmers in a couple years - far sooner than conventional breeding would take
And he says the methods should cut the time needed to develop other varieties and other crops as well.
Aquaponics Could Signal Future of Food
(Published on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:30:23 GMT)
Imagine growing vegetables and fish in the same space. Thats the idea behind aquaponics, a marriage of fish farming and soil-less plant cultivation in a single, sustainable closed system.
Supporters believe aquaponics can play a key role in alleviating food insecurity, addressing the problems of climate change, ground water pollution and overfishing.
Recirculating wetlands system
Aquaponics is really as old as nature itself.
Aquaponics is really a recirculating wetlands system, so its happening right on the banks of our lakes, says Sylvia Bernstein.
Bernstein was a hydroponic gardener for years - growing plants without soil using a water-soluble chemical fertilizer - before discovering she could use the waste water from fish to grow organic vegetables and fruits.
Honestly, I was very skeptical and just couldnt believe that something as simple as fish waste could become a complete fertilizer, she recalls. So I had to actually see a system that was in a friends basement. But when I did, it changed my life.
That was three years ago. Bernstein built her first aquaponics system with her 15-year-old son on a concrete pad outside her home in Boulder, Colorado. In her greenhouse today, she mainly raises tilapia and trout - feeding them once a day.
There are no weeds in her aquaponics garden, and she doesnt have to worry about watering. The plants are growing in containers at a table height for easy access.
I, just this morning, pulled four radishes and some lettuce for lunch, Bernstein says. In my greenhouse right now, I grow all sorts of herbs, tomatoes, peppers
Bernstein started her own business, The Aquaponics Source, with an online store, her own YouTube channel and a blog. She teaches aquaponics at the Denver Botanic Gardens and recently published a book about how to set up an aquaponic garden at home.
According to Berstein, a growing number of people in the U.S. and around the world are doing it, and enjoying the results: a year-round supply of healthful, safe and delicious food.
Earth-friendly food production
The Internet is helping many aquaponic gardeners get connected and learn from one another
Aquaponics is a perfect thing to invest ones mind and heart and elbow grease into, says James Godsil, co-founder of Sweet Water Organics, a commercial aquaponics farm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 2010, Godsil helped set up a foundation to promote the approach
The Sweet Water Foundation was dedicated to democratizing and globalizing the information and the methodologies required to advance this very Earth-friendly food production system, which, by the way, only uses about 10 percent of the water normal farming does, and uses no pesticides. Its all natural.
According to Godsil, those advantages have been a powerful incentive for people from all walks of life who are considering a career in aquaponics
The Sweet Water Foundation probably has had 500 supporters, including school students, and a community of retired engineers, professionals, social enterprisers, teachers and artists, Godsil says. There are so many young elders who are retiring and looking for another career for the next 20 years.
Beyond borders
Through collaboration and joint projects, Godsil is carrying the inspiration beyond U.S. borders.
I was asked to go to Venezuela this March, he says. And Im working with people who have a project in Ecuador, Im working with people in the Congo, in Uganda and Tanzania.
A private group called the Society for Appropriate Rural Technology for Sustainability, is partnering with Sweet Water Foundation on an initiative in India.
Weve formed this Indo-American Aquaponics Initiative, and we aim to make aquaponics one of the fastest growing economic activities in India within a decade, says Subra Mukherjee, secretary of the group, based in Kolkata, India.
Advocates say, with fuel and fertilizer prices climbing and irrigation water supplies dwindling, aquaponics offers a sustainable alternative that can help feed the worlds growing population.
Scientists Search for Life Beneath Antarctic Ice
(Published on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:08:57 GMT)
Britain is marking the centenary of Captain Scotts expedition to reach the South Pole. The legacy of the ill-fated journey continues to this day, as scientists trek to the worlds most inhospitable lands to discover more about our planets extremes. The latest British expedition has just returned from Antarctica, where they are preparing to drill over three kilometers into the ice to reach a sub-glacial lake that could support unknown life forms.
The expeditions transport plane makes its final approach to the Union Glacier ice runway. Its summer in Antarctica. The average temperature, minus 30 Celsius
This current mission by the British Antarctic Survey is one of the most ambitious ever attempted. Preparations have been spread over two summers.
David Pearce is a microbiologist with the survey team. In the 1970s sub-glacial lakes were discovered for the first time. And it was realized that there could potentially be a whole new ecosystem under the ice that we really didnt know anything about, he explained. This ecosystem may contain very interesting forms of life as its been isolated from the biosphere for several million years.
Just getting the equipment to the drilling site requires an extraordinary journey. Five sea containers full of gear - 70 tonnes worth - have been flown in
A tractor train hauls the equipment across the remaining 250 kilometers of snow and ice to the base camp location way above Lake Ellsworth. Drilling will begin at the end of 2012. The technology to access sub-glacial lakes has only just been developed
Theyre about 3.5 kilometers down and that has to be accessed by, in our case, a hot water drill. So we drill down using a hose attached to a hot water generator and that blasts its way through the ice to make a small hole. We then send down a probe and we can bring back samples of water and sediment material, Pearce said.
The Lake Ellsworth project coincides with the centenary of British explorer Captain Scotts mission to the South Pole. Using sleds, a few dogs and horses, Scott set out to become the first person to reach the Pole. He was just beaten to it by Norwegian Roald Amundsen. All five of Scotts expedition party died on the return journey.
Alasdair Macleod, a curator of the Captain Scott exhibition at Londons Royal Geographical Society, says Scotts legacy lives on.
The 25 volumes of data that were the published around marine biology, botany and meteorology were really the first sets of scientific data that we have about Antarctica. And so from that point onwards, Scotts legacy really was the fact that today, people like the British Antarctic Survey can do their work using that data to retro-model climate change for example, Macleod said.
The technology may now be more advanced. But the scientists involved in the Lake Ellsworth project say the thrill of exploring the unknown continues to inspire expeditions to the planets extremes.
Online Textbooks Update Student Learning
(Published on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:51:55 GMT)
Electronic books, or e-books, have changed the way many of us read for pleasure. Now digital text books - educational volumes which are read online - are transforming the way many students learn. The Washington regions largest school system, with 175,000 students, has begun using online course material for its middle- and high-school students
History teacher Luke Rosa wheels his cart filled with laptops into a classroom at Falls Church High School in Virginia. He asks his students to look to Chapter 6, Section 1, on Jacksonian America. Rather than using a regular textbook, its all online.
This school year, Fairfax County Public Schools shifted from hard cover to electronic textbooks for social studies in its middle and high schools. The switch came after digital books were used in 15 schools last year.
Our students come to us technologically savvy and ready to utilize resources from a variety of different places, says Assistant Superintendent Peter Noonan, who points to the benefits of electronic textbooks, such as the ability to update content. The world is changing consistently. The online textbooks can change right along with the events that are happening
Theres a significant financial benefit as well.
Usually it is in the neighborhood of between $50 and $70 to buy a textbook for each student, Noonan says, which adds up to roughly $8 million for all of our students in Fairfax County. We actually have purchased all of the online textbooks for our students for just under $6 million.
Students have mixed feelings about the switch, but most like it.
I do not have to carry a textbook around, so that is nice, says high school student Melanie Reuter.
Fellow student Maria Stephany isnt completely sold on the concept. I dont like it because the internet sometimes doesnt work.
You can highlight your work, says high schooler Brian Tran. You can leave notes on your work and it will all be saved onto your account. It is a lot better than a regular textbook.
Social studies teacher Michael Bambara thinks so, too.
Particularly this book, that I use in government, has differentiated reading levels, Bambara says. So a person can individualize their learning and I can individualize their instruction.
However, making sure all students have online access outside school remains a challenge. About 10 percent of students in Fairfax County dont have a computer or online access at home
Stephen Castillo is one of them, but he makes it work. Pretty much go to the library, I guess, or go to a friends house
Besides the public librarys free computer terminals, students can also use the schools after-school computer lab, or go to one of the computer club houses supported by the county.
All of my family works on a computer, my sister and me both do our homework on it, says Slieman Hakim, a middle school student. So I come here to do my homework. It is good.
Neighboring counties are also considering online textbooks. Gladys Whitehead, director of Curriculum of Prince Georges County Public Schools, says its survey shows 60 percent of students have computer access at home.
Next year we will just have a pilot with probably one classroom and one subject area, so that we can see what issues will come up with complete online access.
Meanwhile, Peter Noonan foresees a future without traditional textbooks for his young child.
I envision a future where my third grade son will likely not being carrying five textbooks back and forth between high school and home when he gets there. I think he will be carrying either a tablet or some sort of device that he will be able to access his information on
And schools, he says, are taking the first steps in that direction now.
Apple Hits Sales, Profits Record
(Published on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:26:36 GMT)
Since the death of Steve Jobs, the giant U.S.-based technology company Apple has hit new sales and profit records on surging demand for its iPhones and iPads.
Apple says it had $13 billion in profits on $46 billion in sales during the last three months of 2011, one of the most profitable quarters ever for an American company. Apples profit exceeded the total revenue for the quarter of the popular Internet search firm Google.
Apple and the international energy conglomerate Exxon Mobil have been vying to be the largest American company based on their respective stock market values
Apples October-to-December sales pushed it past another American company, Hewlett-Packard, as the worlds biggest computer maker. It was Apples first financial reporting period since the death of the firms founder, the much-revered Steve Jobs. Analysts said the profits showed that the company has not faltered under the leadership of its new chief executive, Tim Cook.
Apple sold 37 million iPhones during the fourth quarter, including the firms latest smart phone model, the iPhone 4S. The company has now sold 183 million of the smart phones since its first model was introduced in 2007.
In addition, Apple says it sold more than 15 million of its iPad tablet computers in the last three months of 2011, also a company record and more than twice as many as in the same quarter the year before.
Google to Track Users Across Services
(Published on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:57:52 GMT)
If you are one of the millions of people who use Googles online search engine, email or YouTube video site, you might want to pay close attention. Google is changing its privacy policy to allow it to track users across services.
The company says beginning March 1, it is turning its more than 60 different privacy policies into one policy that will cover multiple products and features to create a simple and intuitive experience.
Google says it may combine information users have provided from one service with information from other services to better tailor search results and advertising.
But critics are concerned that Google is not providing a way to opt out of the tracking. The chief executive of nonprofit advocacy group Common Sense Media issued a statement calling Googles new privacy announcement frustrating and a little frightening. He said consumers, especially kids and teens, should have the option to opt out.
Google and social media titan Facebook have faced privacy disputes in the past.
The European Commission proposed new rules Wednesday to require such companies to give consumers more control over their personal data or be fined up to $1.3 million or 2 percent of their annual global turnover. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding called the protection of personal data a fundamental right, but said people do not always feel in control of their information.
Her proposal includes the controversial right to be forgotten, allowing users to get data about them deleted if there are no legitimate grounds for keeping it.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Dunes on Saturn Moon Reveal Clues to Its Environment
(Published on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:53:57 GMT)
U.S. and European space agency scientists have published details of the massive dunes on the surface of Saturns largest moon, Titan, that provide new insights about environmental conditions on the mysterious planet.
Scientists are interested in Titan because of its intriguing atmosphere and its surprising variety of Earth-like surface features. The moon also is the only known world in our solar system, besides Earth, with liquid on its surface. The liquid on Titan is methane, however, not water
Researchers at NASA and the European Space Agency [ESA] say a new analysis of previous observations by the unmanned Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn indicates the size and spacing of Titans sand dunes are linked to the elevation and latitude where they formed
The dunes size, shape and distribution also provide clues to understanding Titans climate and geology. The scientists say they hope the new findings also shed light on the moons puzzling methane cycle, which is comparable to the water cycle on Earth
The Cassini data indicate that Titans massive dunes are 1 to 2 kilometers wide, stretch across the surface for hundreds of kilometers, and stand as much as 100 meters high. Dunes are the second-most common feature on the lunar landscape, covering 10 million square kilometers. That is slightly larger than the entire area of the United States
The Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004.
The NASA and ESA scientists say the dunes on Saturns moon are visually similar to those found in Earths Kalahari and Arabian deserts. Instead of silicate granules, though, Titans sand likely is composed of frozen grains of methane. Titans lower elevations and latitudes are moist and have an abundance of sand. The dunes are wider and thicker than the dunes in the dryer conditions of higher altitudes and latitudes. The scientists believe the phenomenon is due to Saturns slightly elliptical orbit around the Sun that gives Titan its seven-year seasons
With its 60 moons and spectacular rings, Saturn is more than 1.2 billion kilometers from Earth. It is the second-largest planet in the solar system behind Jupiter
Saturn is the sixth most-distant from the Sun, after Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury. Beyond Saturn are the ice-giant planets, Uranus and Neptune.
Internet Opens Russia for Democracy Movement
(Published on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:24:28 GMT)
Russias protest movement grew and got organized with speed that startled many in the political establishment. Russias uncensored Internet allows people to communicate, coordinate and raise money for rallies, all through their computers.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is running for president in elections March 4. His campaign website photos show him skiing, skating and fighting in a judo match.
But on the Internet, one satire rips off the latest Sasha Baron Cohens comedy, The Dictator. It has Russias leader winning a running presidential race by shooting his opponents with a starting pistol
Or in this takeoff on the film Titanic, he and Boris Gryzlov, former speaker of Duma are heading toward a massive iceberg.
In another video, psychiatrists in white coats dance in a chorus line singing, Our Madhouse Vote for Putin. Watched by over one-million people, it won a recent YouTube music-video contest in Russia.
Online videos like these are shaping the generation that protests Putins plan to rule Russia for another decade. With 50 million Russians now online, many Russians have stopped watching news programs on state-controlled TV.
Sam Greene, an American political scientist in Moscow, said Russias Internet is forcing TV news coverage to change, or die.
They then had to cover the December 24 as an anti-Putin protest, said Greene. That has not been on television ever. And it was the combination of the fact that the Internet would have put the information out there, and did put that information out there. And there were 80, 100, 120,000 people on the streets, which is hard to miss. That forced television into this corner.
In cyberspace, Putins backers counterattacked with his interactive campaign website. But, once again, his opponents proved to be quicker on the web.
They immediately posted suggestions. Please leave politics. It is obvious that power is a narcotic, read one from Andrei Antonenko.
Anti-Putin comments like Antonenkos immediately rose to the top of the online ranking. Campaign workers took them down, but screen grabs had already gone viral.
They should have seen it coming, says Greene, who also directs a New Media program in the Russian capital. They did not.
Oddly, Putins party, United Russia, appears nowhere on his campaign website. That is because Internet blogger Alexey Navalny ruined the party brand by saddling it online with an unshakeable label, the party of swindlers and thieves.
While Russias government loses the Internet information war, the opposition now uses the Internet to raise money for rallies. Alexei Kozlov, for example, raised $130,000 in online contributions from about 5,000 contributors. He says Yandex Money, the payment system, limits payments to $500, which means no one can charge that one or two oligarchs are bankrolling the protests.
Also, Yandex Money only works inside Russia. He says no one can accuse the movement of being funded by the United States.
Finally, the opposition uses Facebook and other social network sites to inform people about protests. Two weeks before a mass march is to go through central Moscow, the city has no political graffiti, and no political posters. But if protest planners hit their targets, the February 4 march will be another Internet-driven flash mob of 100,000 people.
Report: S. Africans, Kenyans Top Africa Twitterers
(Published on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:40:19 GMT)
A new study says South Africans and Kenyans are Africas most active Twitter users and that the social networking site is rapidly becoming a key information tool across the continent.
Researchers analyzed more than 11.5 million tweets from specific locations in Africa during the last three months of 2011.
They found South Africans made more than five million of those tweets, twice as many as people in any other country. Kenya was next with nearly 2.5 million tweets, followed by Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco.
The study says the growth across Africa is being driven by the use of mobile devices.
It found that 80 percent of those polled used Twitter to communicate with friends, nearly 70 percent used it to monitor news and just over 20 percent used it to find jobs.
Africas most prolific tweeters averaged between 20 and 29 years old, much younger than the global average of 39 according to the report.
The study, called How Africa Tweets, was conducted by two companies - Kenya-based Portland Communications and Britain-based Tweetminster.
Panel Urges Study of Nanomaterial Risks
(Published on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:35:12 GMT)
Nanoparticles are really tiny manufactured objects, no bigger than a clump of atoms. They are being engineered into materials with unique electrical, chemical and optical properties. They are used in a wide array of products from cosmetics and food additives to solar cells and medical devices
But concerns are growing that almost nothing is known about the risks these materials might pose to human health or the environment. Now, a federal science panel is calling for a systematic review of the safety of nanotechnology
The nano market is booming. In 2009 developers generated $1 billion from the sale of nanomaterials. The global market for products that rely on these materials is expected to grow to $3 trillion by 2015
Yet without a coordinated research plan to assess, manage and avoid risks to human health and the environment, the future of safe and sustainable nanotechnology is uncertain. Thats the conclusion of a new report by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences
What we think we need and what we speak to in this report is how would we develop ways to predict what materials might be hazardous says Jonathan Samet, who heads the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California and chaired the expert panel that wrote the report.
For example, little is known about the health effects of nanomaterials being absorbed, inhaled or ingested, or what happens when nanomaterials escape into the environment. Samet says steps must be taken in the short-term to answer these questions, especially as new and more complex nanomaterials are engineered.
For example, understanding how materials might be released in the environment, what factors, what aspects of materials make them at potential to be released, to understand how materials actually interact with biological systems, whether it is a cell or an ecosystem.
The report sets out a five-year research plan to accomplish this agenda, beginning with a set of steps that need to be taken immediately
These relate to testing the right testing strategies, to having materials so we can calibrate across assays, to having the informatics, the databases, to pull the information together, Samet says, to getting scientists to work together and then finally to having the right sort of coordinating management structure within our government to most efficiently address the problem
Public health and environmental activists have been calling for safeguards like these for years. Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist working on health programs for the the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that compared to the huge commercial investments in research in development, spending for health and safety research lags far behind, even with key federal players like the Environmental Protection Agency
The problem is that agencies like EPA just have too little budget and the agencies that are doing research and development and advancing nanotechnology are much stronger financially, Sass says
This week the NRDC filed the first-ever lawsuit to block the use of a nano chemical in a commercial product - specifically, antimicrobial nanosilver used in clothing, baby blankets and other textiles. Sass says the EPA approved the chemical on the condition that safety data would be supplied over four years
And we dont think thats good enough. We think that these chemicals should not be in commercial products until they have been fully tested.
Sass suggests consumers can fight back with their pocketbooks
So consumers can avoid buying things that say they are colored with nanosilver or advertise that they have antimicrobial or germ-fighting properties in the clothing. Nobody needs germ free clothing.
The National Research Council report recommends replacing the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative that currently coordinates efforts across 25 government agencies, but has no authority over management, budget or research.
The committee also warns against cuts to the $120 million annual budget for nanotechnology health and safety research
Samet says the panel will monitor progress in beginning this new assessment of nanotechnology, and report back to the U.S. Congress in eighteen months.
Twitter Announces Selective Censorship Technology
(Published on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:21:42 GMT)
The popular microblogging service Twitter has announced it has new technology enabling it to censor messages on a country-by-country basis in order to follow a range of laws around the world.
The U.S.-based company announced on its blog this week that it has not yet used the technology, but that if it does, a message will appear to the user saying the Twitter posting -- known as a tweet -- has been removed in order to comply with the law of the country in which the user is operating.
The approach is in stark contrast to a statement Twitter made a year ago called The Tweets Must Flow, promising not to censor Twitter messages as they helped foment anti-government movements in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
Twitter did not give a reason for the change, except to say that as it grows internationally, it is entering countries that have different ideas about the limits of freedom of expression. It said the laws are such that it cannot exist in some countries at all, while other nations have similar laws to the U.S. but restrictions on certain topics
It gave the examples of France and Germany, where pro-Nazi speech is banned. While Twitter did not list other nations specifically, another example could be Thailand, where it is illegal to speak ill of the monarchy
Twitter does not operate in some countries that strictly control media content, such as China.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
New App Helps ID Altered Fingerprints
(Published on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:40:46 GMT)
In 2009, a Chinese woman illegally entered Japan by altering her fingerprints in order to fool immigration officials.
While it was Japans first documented case of biometric fraud, disguising fingerprints to hide complicity in a crime, or to evade immigration restrictions, is on the rise worldwide
Researchers at Michigan State University have created a way to help law enforcement officials quickly identify altered fingerprints: a precise algorithm which helps software systems identify altered prints.
Altered state
Biting the pads off fingertips or surgically replacing the fingerprints with toe prints might seem like drastic measures but Anil Jain, a biometrics expert and professor at Michigan State University, says these efforts at deception are becoming increasingly common
People who go through this process, which can be both expensive and painful, would want to do this only for high-valued scenarios and not for cashing a check for $50, Jain says. So the most common uses of this fingerprint alteration is people who are seeking asylum in the United States or in Europe, because if they have a prior criminal record, they will probably not be granted asylum.
Popular crime dramas lead many to believe its easy to confirm a persons identity from a fingerprint. In reality, its not so simple. A number of factors make identification difficult: whether information has been entered into a specific database, if the specimen is smudged or a partial print, and if that print has been altered.
An app for that
Very little research has been done in this last category. Existing software can alert law enforcement if the print image quality is poor. But that isnt much help because many altered prints are of good quality.
FBI
Fugitive William Keegan had all 10 fingers surgically altered in the 1990s to obliterate his fingerprints above the first joint.
Jains graduate student, Soweon Yoon, was part of a team that designed a precise algorithm that helps software systems identify altered prints
The most important feature for fingerprint matching is called minutiae. So minutiae refers to [a] ridge ending point and [a] ridge bifurcation point, Yoon says. From typical fingerprint impression, we can extract 100 minutiae per each finger.
While patterns on most of our fingers flow in curves and loops, those who have altered fingerprints have abrupt, discontinued lines. That generates an unusually high number of minutiae points
You can imagine if someone makes a cut here, they will generate a lot of ridge ending points, so that generates [an] excessive number of minutiae, Yoon says.
While it may seem easy enough to look at a set of fingerprints and tell if it has been altered, Jain says its not practical.
VOA - E. Celeste
Graduate student Soweon Yoon helped design a precise algorithm which helps software systems identify altered prints.
Some of these databases are extremely, extremely large. So the FBI database is an example, has about 70 million subjects. That means there are 700 million fingerprint images if each person has 10 fingers. And so there is no way anybody could manually check whether there are altered fingerprints or not.
Eliminating the guesswork
As it analyzes images, the application does not identify people, it simply alerts officials to an anomaly, so they can perform a secondary inspection. And, Jain says, it also takes the guesswork out of determining whether or not a print has been altered
Different human experts will have different degrees of proficiency in identifying (prints), and they get tired and so their decisions are not necessarily going to be consistent. Whereas a computer algorithm is going to be consistently behaving, there is no subjectivity in it once you tune it, its going to behave in the same way.
The application also helps distinguish between accidental and intentional alterations. Most accidents result in scars on only a few fingers. If there are changes in five or more, that was most likely done on purpose.
The methods for altering fingerprints are becoming more sophisticated every day. Back in 1934, the infamous American bank robber John Dillinger burned his fingers with acid, hoping to evade identification and capture
According to Yoon, todays criminals use everything from making a Z-shaped cut on the finger pad and switching the skin flaps, to creating temporary silicon overlays, and even triple print switches
Recently, three people were charged because of this fingerprint alteration. So one was the patient who received a surgery and then the second one was the broker, and the third one was the physician who performed that surgery.
Michigan State University has licensed the new application to Morpho, a leading biometrics identification firm based in Paris. The company, which supplies software systems to many of the worlds top law enforcement agencies, expects it will be able to market the application easily and quickly
Meanwhile, Jain and his team are developing algorithms and software, which will one day be able to recover and rebuild fingerprints from altered samples.
Study Shows PFCs Can Reduce Vaccine Effectiveness
(Published on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:53:04 GMT)
A new study finds that children exposed to common industrial chemicals, called perfluorinated compounds or PFCs, have a reduced immune response to vaccines intended to protect them from disease. PFCs are used around the world to make waterproof rain gear and food containers, and are known to pollute drinking water and seafood. PFC contamination could have a significant impact on the effectiveness of global immunization efforts.
When children are vaccinated their immune systems produce antibodies that protect them from debilitating and potentially deadly childhood infections, such as polio, measles, diphtheria and tetanus. The protection is supposed to last a lifetime
But scientists say the effectiveness of these vaccines is severely reduced when children are exposed to high levels of PFCs:
This was quite serious because we could also see some of the children were so low in antibody concentration that they were essentially not protected. They have been vaccinated four times and vaccines had not worked, said Dr. Phillipe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health.
Grandjean led a team of scientists in a study of children living on the Faroe Islands between Scotland and Iceland.
The islanders were chosen as subjects because their diet is mainly seafood, known to have high concentrations of PFCs.
The scientists followed a group of more than 500 children whod been vaccinated against diphtheria and tetanus. But children who showed elevated levels of PFCs in their blood also had very low concentrations of antibodies against these infections
It was quite a striking fact, one that I would not have anticipated, said Dr. Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which promotes vaccine development and delivery around the world.
Hotez said if PFCs do, in fact, interfere with antibodies and immune system functions, then the public health problem is going to be much worse in the urban slums of low- and middle-income countries, where exposure to these industrial chemicals can be much higher.
Even a modest reduction in vaccine coverage and vaccine immune responses could lead to subsequent outbreaks of childhood disease. And there is a risk that we could see recurrences of childhood killers such as diphtheria or pertussis or other childhood diseases now becoming more common in the worlds poorest countries, said Hotez.
Scientists say PFCs are stable and persistent chemicals that have been in wide use for decades - so much so that everyone probably has detectable levels of the compounds in their body.
We have not done enough in regard to protecting the population against these old compounds, and now we are stuck because we all have them in our bodies and we are all using them, said Grandjean.
Critics note that since the study was done on island residents eating a mostly fish diet, it should have taken into account polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFAs], which are found in fish and may suppress the immune system.
Researchers say there is an urgent need to study the adverse health effects of perfluorinated compounds on larger populations
South Africas Space Program Wants Twitter Input
(Published on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:11:43 GMT)
A new study shows that social networking is growing on the African continent, especially in South Africa, where the countrys Twitter-active population posted around five million messages in the last quarter of 2011, double the amount of tweets coming out of Kenya, the continents second most Twitter-savvy nation.
Now South African authorities are getting in on the action, using the micro-blogging site to gauge public opinion on important matters -- most notably, the countrys space program.
South Africas National Space Agency is reaching out to citizens via Twitter, asking for input on what its agenda should focus on over the next 20 years.
Its a move that hasnt surprised Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx, an internet research company.
The only surprise about the move onto Twitter and Facebook is that it took so long for a government agency to do it, says Goldstuck. But its appropriate that a high-tech agency like the Space Agency should take that step, because you would expect them to be visionary and forward thinking.
The main drawback of gauging public opinion via social media, though, is that it reaches only the internet-savvy market -- a small, mostly elite segment of South Africas population.
Initially, the internet user in South Africa, and therefore the social networker, was part of the higher income group, says Goldstruck. But with the explosion of smart phones in South Africa, were seeing the growth of the internet in the mass market through mobile access to the web and through apps and the like. And particularly because of the fact that any smart phone that you buy today will already have Twitter and Facebook installed on the device, or at least a logo or link to those services. As a result of that, the broader market is moving into social networks in this country. The fact that theres something like 4.8 million Facebook users in [South Africa] and as many Twitter users suggests that its not only the haves, its beginning to move into the arena of the have-nots.
To balance the scales, South Africas space agency is also engaging citizens face-to-face, aiming to create an all-round robust public discussion on its planned space program.
To assess the power of social networking in Africa, one neednt look further than the Egyptian revolution, which began with a couple of Twitter messages. But how does South Africa measure up to other countries -- the United States, for example -- when it comes to engaging citizens online
Theres a fundamental difference in the way government uses social networks in South Africa [as] compared to the U.S., says Goldstruck, explaining that South Africa still has a way to go. In the United States, social media and social networks played a major role in the last presidential election, and that woke up the entire landscape to the importance of Twitter, as both a campaigning and communication tool between government and citizens. In South Africa, it played a very small role.
But the governments first decisive step into the Twittersphere has got locals buzzing. It is only logical, they seem to think, that cyberspace would prove the ideal place to help plan the countrys journey into space.
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