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May 31, 2006Studies link global warming to greater power of hurricanesThe New York Times: Climate researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology separately reported new evidence yesterday supporting the idea that global warming is causing stronger hurricanes. Bush energy plan whacks conservationThe Christian Science Monitor: More than a dozen efficiency efforts are set for trims or elimination as the administration pushes long-term projects. Early education key to scientific career choiceThe Boston Globe: Teenage career preferences are a more reliable indicator than mathematical aptitude for predicting which students become scientists, suggesting a flaw in federal education strategies, a University of Virginia study found. UK teachers call for boycott of IsraelScienceNow: Britain's largest university union opted to go out with a bang yesterday when it urged its 67,000 members to consider boycotting individuals and institutions "that do not publicly dissociate themselves" from Israel's policies toward Palestinians. Scientific leaders around the world strongly condemned the union's action, which the union's own executive officer had advised against. May 30, 2006Is humanity on the eve of destruction?The Guardian: Humanity has reached a "defining moment" in our dominion over the planet and our ability to destroy it, says Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, who gave the Joseph Rotblat lecture at the Hay Book Festival in the UK two days ago. Rees said in his lecture, "Twenty-first century science: hopes fears and ethical challenges," that scientific advances had made it much easier for individuals to commit devastating acts of terror on a much greater scale than 9/11. "In a global village there will be global village idiots. And with this power, just one could be too many," he said. These might not be fundamentalists, but those with the mentality of a computer virus designer or arsonist, he added. "Even a single person will have the capacity to cause massive disruption through error or through terror. We are kidding ourselves if we think that technical education leads to balanced rationality." Politicians should do more to counter the danger posed by climate change, "ravaging" the biosphere. He called for massive investment in technological solutions such as biofuels. "They deserve a priority and commitment from governments akin to that accorded to the Manhattan project to build the first atom bomb or the Apollo moon landing project in the 60s." An autopsy of Hurricane KatrinaThe New York Times: Computer models of storms that helped design the levee system in New Orleans were flawed from the start because the models were too simplistic says a report issued last week. The Army Corp of Engineers designed their hurriance model in 1969, and never saw the need to go back and reanalyze "the true risks of catastrophic flooding" in New Orleans. Even when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the successor agency to the Weather Bureau, recommended increasing the strength of the model, the corps did not change its construction plans. When hurriance Katrina hit the coast last year, Katrina acted more like four storms rather than one single storm, something that the corp's simulations could not model. New levees and repairs to the old levees, will be based more on probability statistical research that can incoporate the latest research findings says Daniel Hitchings, director of the corps task force in charge of overall hurricane recovery for the Gulf Coast. NASA’s shuttle replacement draws nearMSNBC: Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman/Boeing keep cards close to vest Tropics are expanding, study findsThe Christian Science Monitor: Their widening - by an average 140 miles - could shift storm tracks, dry out southern Europe, and grow some deserts. May 29, 2006Opinion: Swift Boating the PlanetThe New York Times: Paul Krugman writes that scientists and anyone considering of running for office on a platform of dealing with climate change, need to be more pro-active in dealing with the manipulation of data by opponens of global warming. If their opponents misrepresent their data, they should call it scientific fraud "pure and simple" says Krugman. Russia launches earthquake satelliteSpaceflight Now: A Russian submarine has launched Complex Orbital Magneto-Plasma Autonomous Small Satellite 2 (COMPASS 2). The 180-pound microsatellite, managed by the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Waves Propagation (IZMIRAN), will study earthquakes and other natural disasters. The five instruments onboard from Russia, Poland, Sweden, Hungary, and Ukraine, will probe the Earth's underground lithosphere, atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere to learn how each terrestrial region is connected with a variety of events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tropical cyclones, and tornadoes. Laser enriched U-235 becoming more popularThe Sydney Morning Hearald: General Electric has signed a deal with the Australian-based Silex corporation to commericalise a laser-based technique for enriching uranium fuel. Laser enrichment is believed to be significantly cheaper in terms of energy costs than using diffusion or centifuge techniques. The laser is "tuned" to a frequency that provides U-235 with energy. The additional energy makes the atom electrically charged, making the U-235 easy to collect through the use of electromagnetic fields. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists listed some of the other efforts to commerlise this technology last year. Mars rovers to get smart upgradeBBC: The two NASA rovers operating on the surface of Marsare getting a software upgrade to study Martian clouds and dust devils. The new algorithms will give the rovers the ability to sift through their images and send the best candidates of clouds and dust devils back to Earth. The two rovers have exceeded NASA's expectations on how long they could last on the surface by more than 200 days. May 26, 2006Attracting US college students to scienceThe New York TImes: Brent Staples writes about the experiences of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in attracting students to science. According to Staples, despite being generally less well known than the main University of Maryland campus, UMBC is building a significant reputation for remaking science education in America — and in particular, for increasing minority participation, which lags even after decades of federally supported initiatives. The reason for their success is UMBC's Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which has about 1,900 applications each year for about 50 places. A study in Science published on 31 March suggested that "86 percent of the Meyerhoff participants graduated with science or engineering degrees. Nearly 9 in 10 of those graduates went on to graduate or professional programs, with a significant number earning M.D.'s or Ph.D's, or both....More than half of the Meyerhoff students are black." Other universities should follow UMBC's lead, says Staples, but it "won't be easy." High-Tech Materials Could Render Objects InvisibleScience: Materials already being developed could funnel light and electromagnetic radiation around any object and render it invisible, theoretical physicists predict online in Science this week Jet streams off track, may affect weather patternThe Seattle Times: Seattle researchers have discovered that warming of the Earth's atmosphere seems to be shoving jet streams out of their normal tracks — a change that could expand deserts and profoundly affect the world's weather patterns. Physicists plead to make final tweak to fusion experimentNature: Is there time to make the ITER reactor a little fuzzy? Hopkins Physics Lab to build new NASA probesSpace Daily: Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory announced Wednesday it will develop and operate twin NASA spacecraft, scheduled to be launched in 2012, intended to study how the Sun interacts with Earth's radiation belts. May 25, 2006Silicon Valley laser company celebrates 40th anniversarySan Jose Mercury News: Coherent, a Santa Clara company that celebrates its 40th anniversary of making lasers Friday, has to be one of the oldest tech companies started in Silicon Valley that's still pursuing its original line of business. Physics teacher under fire for gun experimentSan Francisco Chronicle: Parent's complaint raises issue about legality of stunt Solution to Greenhouse Gases Is New Nuclear Plants, Bush SaysThe New York Times: With Democrats seizing the national stage on gasoline prices and the environment, President Bush came here Wednesday to take it back, calling for the construction of more nuclear power plants to help reduce the greenhouse gases believed to contribute to global warming. The Changing ClimateSlate: This week, Al Gore makes his action-hero debut in the movie An Inconvenient Truth. For a moment, let's not call the subject of the film climate change, or even global warming. Let's call it the most extensive science experiment of all time. It's been going on since the start of the Industrial Revolution. The entire planet serves as the lab. And you and 6.5 billion other people are the citizen-scientists working on it—oh, and the guinea pigs, too. May 24, 2006Deep space network under threatSpace News: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns that NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) may not be able to support future NASA missions because of its deteriorating infrastructure. In a report released Monday the GAO found serious problems with the DSN, as NASA has been deferring maintenance work at the three main ground stations since 2002, leading to aging, deteriorating equipment as a result. According to the report some NASA projects are creating their own ground networks because they believed the DSN would not be able to meet their needs. China tries to improve image after science scandalsReuters: The US National Science Foundation opens a new office in Beijing today that could help improve scientific integrity at a time when China's research community has been marred by scandal over a fake computer chip promoted by a scientist at one of its best universities. The NSF's Beijing office aimed to promote collaboration between East Asian and American scientists and monitor scientific developments in the region. Ene Ergma: the political physicistRTDinfo: The President of the Estonian Parliament, the Rikogu, Ene Ergma describes how she went into politics to defend science in the latest issue of RTDinfo. Ergma points out that “Education is a long-term project, whereas many politicians are concerned mainly with managing four-year cycles. They also know how to count their voters. In Estonia, there are 3 000 scientists who vote and 300 000 pensioners!” Ergma became interested in science after she heard someone speak about plasma physics. "Although to this day I do not truly understand why, that fascinated me... I bought a book on the subject and started to work.” Eventually she moved to Moscow to study physics. After 24 years in Russia she moved back to Estonia to become a professor at Tartu University. The move was brought about by trouble with the authorities after speaking out on human rights issues. “For the last nine years of my [Russia] career, I was not allowed to leave the country. I was being punished.” Since entering politics in 2002 she says she has become less optimistic. “You know, nature is unique, the laws of physics are unique, but people are multiple. The laws of society are much more complicated than the laws of nature!” Ene Ergma also works with the European commission looking at the situation of women researchers in the former Communist countries. “At first, I thought it was a pseudo problem. I had enjoyed a wonderful career without too many problems. But then I read the reports of my colleagues and the figures said it all. While most PhDs are women, more than 85% of professors are men!” New US missile defense plan upsets RussiaThe Independent: The US is proposing to install an $1.6 billion anti-missile defence system in either Poland or the Czech Republic, to counter any future attack from a nuclear-armed Iran. The system would have the same capabilities as the anti-missile shield under construction in Alaska and California. The move would have "a negative impact on the whole Euro-Atlantic security system", Sergei Ivanov, the Russian Defence Minister, told a Belarus newspaper. The mooted site for the system was "dubious, to put it mildly", he said. There has been no tests of a missile defense system since 2002, and most of the tests have failed. The new program is seen as sending a message to Iran over its uranium-enrichment programme. The Pentagon will spend over $10 billion in the current budget cycle on missile defense. May 23, 2006Increased hurricane activity expected in 2006BBC: This year's Atlantic hurricane season will be "above normal", according to the US climate agency. Einstein struggles with his grand theoryGuardian Unlimited: Unseen papers on sale for $1.5m show scientific genius's failures together with his lighter side Earth-solar cycle spurs greenhouse gasesReuters: Greenhouse gases are known to spur global warming, but scientists said on Monday that global warming in turn spurs greenhouse gas emissions -- which means Earth could get hotter faster than climate models predict. Interview: lab director Steve ChuCNET: Steve Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, invariably leaves audiences with two impressions: Science is absolutely fascinating, and humanity is dancing on the precipice of oblivion. May 22, 2006Al Gore's fight against global warmingThe New York Times: When Al Gore wrote Earth in the Balance, his book on climate change in the late 1980s, President Bush acused Gore of being so environmentally extreme in the 1992 presidential election, that "we'll be up to our necks n owls and out of work for every American." Despite presenting numoerous lectures on climate change and his close involvement in formulating the 1998 Kyoto Climate Change Protocol, Al Gore laments on being unable so far to awaken the public to what he calls a "planetary emergency" despite evidence that heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases are warming the earth, and even after Hurricane Katrina and Europe's deadly 2003 heat wave, which he calls a foretaste of much worse to come. Al Gore's views are presented in a new documentary called "An Inconvenient Truth." The film, basically a version of a lecture the ex-Vice President has given is reviewed in the New York Times. According to the review In interviews and e-mail exchanges, many climate specialists who have seen the film quibbled about details but tended to agree with Eric Steig, a University of Washington geochemist who posted his reactions at the Web log realclimate.org Williamina Fleming, scottish maid who became an astronomerThe Scotsman:Today in 1911 saw the death by pneumonia of astronomer Williamina Fleming. Fleming was born Williamina Stevens in Dundee in 1857; she married and moved to the US when she was 21. She was employed as a Can engine make gas obsolete?Wired: While much of the world fumes over escalating fuel prices, a small company in north central Iowa is quietly hoping to make gasoline obsolete as an engine fuel. Ozone hole may be gone by 2050MSNBC: A new study suggests that a reduction in chlorofluorocarbons will eventually lead to complete reversal in the two ozone holes. MIT Panel Says Pentagon, Not University, Caused Delay in Investigating Research-Fraud AllegationsThe Chronicle of Higher Education: An internal review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that the federal government, not university officials, was largely to blame for a several-year delay in investigating allegations of fraud at Lincoln Laboratory, which does research for the U.S. Department of Defense. Earth’s magnetic field getting weaker, say researchersThe Chronicle Herald: Earth’s field has weakened over past 250 years May 19, 2006Emergence of the Galactic HeavyweightsScienceNow: The earliest galaxies were 10,000 times smaller than the Milky Way, but the radiation they emitted effectively precluded any more of their kind from developing. From then on, big galaxies dominated, signaling a major shift in the history of the universe. Now a team has provided the first, albeit indirect, evidence for the scenario. PTO Wants to Tap Experts to Help Patent ExaminersScience: In hopes of improving the quality of patents and reducing a backlog that this month topped 1 million applications, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is weighing an online pilot project to solicit public input on patent applications. USA proposes nuclear fuel ban treatyNPR: The U.S. is pushing countries around the world to accept new restrictions on their nuclear programs. An American diplomat at a conference in Geneva has proposed a treaty to ban the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium. Security analyst Joe Cirincione talks with Steve Inskeep about the proposal. Laser blinding weapons in IraqLos Angeles Times: IN 1995 the US signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons which outlawed laser weapons designed to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision. However, the convention, which came into force in 1998, does not have any compliance protocols, nor has it stopped the development of laser blinding weapons within the US military. May 18, 2006Scientist donates prize money to Kelly's familyThe Independent: The winner of the Aventis Science Book Prize has offered to give his £10,000 prize money to the family of David Kelly, the government scientist who committed suicide following his work into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. International Talent Still WelcomeScienceNow: Under pressure from researchers, the U.S. Commerce Department has retreated from new export-control rules that would have made it harder for some foreign scientists to do research in the United States. Instead, the department has decided to appoint a committee of officials from government, industry, and academia to take a comprehensive look at policies aimed at keeping sensitive technologies from falling into the wrong hands. The decision allows universities to continue including foreign nationals in campus research without obtaining export licenses. Editorial: Renewing America's commitment to research in high-energy physicsThe New York Times: America should build the next big particle accelerator here. Microbiology: Batteries not included: Circuits of slimeNature: Among their many talents, bacteria are the world's best electrochemists, creating a life-powering flow of electrons in a startling range of conditions. In the first of two features, Nick Lane asks what limits, if any, constrain this ability. In the second, Charlotte Schubert meets the people trying to put this microbial ingenuity to practical use. May 17, 2006Tony Blair backs new nuclear power stationsThe Independent:Tony Blair has agreed to the building of a new generation of nuclear power stations on the grounds that they would guarantee energy supplies and tackle climate change. Lunar secrets of the early life on Earth?NPR: The first life on earth would have left traces in our planet's infant rocks. But those early layers have since been squeezed and heated out of all recognition. Some researchers say we should look for evidence of the earliest life on earth in rocks on the moon. No brain drain seen at Los Alamos labSan Jose Mercury News: About 95 percent of Los Alamos National Laboratory employees have responded to job offers from a new management team, dispelling earlier fears that moving from one manager to another would cause a brain drain at the nuclear weapons lab. With Time Running Out, a Discovery Deep in the Crust of the EarthThe New York Times: Douglas Wilson led a team of scientists hoping to reach the bottom of the oceanic crust, nearly a mile beneath the seafloor. May 16, 2006Canada's big space shotTheStar.com: This country has long been a leader in astronomy, so our participation in the construction of the world's biggest telescope is only logical. All we have to do is come up with $250 million. Glaciers in Africa Expected to DisappearEnvironmental News Network: Mountain glaciers in equatorial Africa are on their way to disappearing within two decades, a team of British researchers reports. |