A new fossil species found in Spain
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/f-sf-anf032510.php
In the ’80s, Spanish researchers found the first fossils of Cloudina in Spain, a small fossil of tubular appearance and one of the first animals that developed an external skeleton between 550 and 543 million years ago. Now palaeontologists from the University of Extremadura have discovered a new species, Cloudina carinata, the fossil of which has preserved its tridimensional shape.
“Cloudina carinata is characterised by its elaborate ornamentation and complexity of the shells and tube that are formed when inserted”, Iván Cortijo, main author and researcher in the Area of Palaeontology at the University of Extremadura, describes to SINC.
(EurekAlert.org, March 25, 2010)
Sen. Inhofe inquisition seeking ways to criminalize and prosecute 17 leading climate scientists
Senator James Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, has gone a step beyond promoting his long-notorious global warming denialist propaganda. He is now using the resources of the Senate committee to seek opportunities to criminalize the actions of 17 leading scientists who have been associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports. A report released by Inhofe’s staff on February 23 outlines this classic Joe McCarthyite witch-hunt: page after page of incorrect and misleading statements, a list of federal laws that allegedly may make scientists subject to prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department, and a list of names and affiliations of 17 “key players” in the “CRU Controversy” over stolen e-mails and their connections with IPCC reports.
That’s from Rick Piltz, the guy who blew the whistle on the Bush Administration’s censorship of federal climate science.
(Climate Progress, February 25, 2010)
Pachauri: Don’t hound the climate scientists
http://climateprogress.org/2010/03/27/pachauri-ipcc-climate-scientists-mccarthyite/
“As inhabitants of planet Earth, our lives depend on a stable climate, and it is our responsibility to ensure that future generations do not suffer the consequences of climate change”
To dismiss the implications of climate change based on an error about the rate at which Himalayan glaciers are melting is an act of astonishing intellectual legerdemain. Yet this is what some doubters of climate change are claiming. But the reality is that our understanding of climate change is based on a vast and remarkably sound body of science – and is something we distort and trivialise at our peril.
So writes IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri in a blunt article published by the Guardian Friday.
(ClimateProgress, March 27, 2010)
The Biggest Control Knob: CO2 in Earth’s Climate History
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1453
It’s been a busy past two months of weather and climate change news, and I haven’t found time to blog about the research presented at December’s American Geophysical (AGU) meeting in San Francisco. That is the world’s largest scientific conference on climate change, and the place to be if you want to get the pulse of the planet. The keynote speech at the AGU meeting was given by Dr. Richard Alley of Penn State University. Dr. Alley is the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University, and one of the most respected and widely published world experts on climate change. Dr. Alley has testified before Congress on climate change issues, served as lead author of “Chapter 4: Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground” for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is author of more than 170 peer-reviewed scientific articles on Earth’s climate. He is also the author of a book I highly recommend–The Two Mile Time Machine, a superb account of Earth’s climate history as deduced from the 2-mile long Greenland ice cores. A standing-room only audience of over 2,000 scientists packed the lecture hall Dr. Alley spoke at, and it was easy to see why–Alley is an excellent and engaging speaker. I highly recommend listening to his 45-minute talk via a very watchable recording showing his slides as he speaks in one corner of the video. If you want to understand why scientists are so certain of the link between CO2 and Earth’s climate, this is a must-see lecture.
(Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog, March 24, 2010) |
Climate debate missing the point
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2834489.htm
I’m increasingly of the view that the government, and indeed much of the classic ‘environmental movement’, are badly missing the point on climate change and energy security.
There’s a lot of recent debate about whether an emissions trading system is the right model for putting a price on carbon – or whether a simple tax, or a fee-and-dividend model, would be better. We argue about whether climate change is happening, or if it’s important, or whatever. Blah di blah.
(ABC The Drum Unleashed, March 3, 2010)
Waste issue hurting U.S. nuclear revival-panel
at 11:30 am on Friday, 26 March 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2522137120100325?type=marketsNews
Lack of plan for waste seen hurting nuclear development
* Commission told to move beyond Yucca Mountain site
* Some lawmakers oppose plan to shut down Yucca (Adds comments from commissioners)
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) – The lack of a permanent home for the nation’s radioactive waste is dampening prospects for a resurgence of the U.S. nuclear industry, federal commissioners said at their first public hearing on the subject.
The Energy Department set up the panel of former Congressmen, academics, and business leaders after deciding to scrap the long delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
Commissioners said nuclear waste does not pose an immediate threat to the nation, but a plan on its disposal must be hatched to address the concerns average Americans have about expanding nuclear power.
“This is a major impediment to the development of new nuclear sites,” said commissioner John Rowe, chief executive officer of power company Exelon Corp (EXC.N). “While we don’t have to do anything quickly to keep the public safe, we do have to do something decisive to have public credibility.”
(Rueters, March 25, 2010)
Scientist Files Official Complaint Over ‘Distorted’ News Story on IPCC Errors
at 9:44 am on Friday, 26 March 2010
Says Newspaper Suggested IPCC Made False Claims about Amazon Rainfall
A leading scientist has made an official complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over an “inaccurate, misleading and distorted” newspaper story about a supposed mistake made by the UN’s panel on global warming.
Simon Lewis, an expert on tropical forests at the University of Leeds, says the story, published by the Sunday Times in January, is wrong and should be corrected.
(Solve Climate, March 24, 2010)
Lawmakers seek to keep Yucca nuclear waste dump
at 9:00 am on Friday, 26 March 2010
(Reuters) – The U.S. Energy Department’s push to scrap a long-planned national nuclear waste dump in Nevada has run into stiff opposition as lawmakers on Wednesday questioned the Obama administration’s decision.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a resolution of disapproval in the House of Representatives on Tuesday aimed at making the department stop efforts to shelve the project and maintain all records relating to the proposed storage site.
Lawmakers on a House Appropriations subcommittee grilled Energy Secretary Steven Chu about plans to cancel the repository at Yucca Mountain.
(Reuters, March 24, 2010)
Global deforestation slowed over last decade: U.N.
at 8:45 am on Friday, 26 March 2010
(Reuters) – Deforestation slowed in the last decade, in the first sign that global conservation efforts are bearing fruit, but an area the size of Costa Rica is still being destroyed each year, the United Nations said on Thursday.
A report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that about 13 million hectares of forest a year were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes in 2000- 2010, down from 16 million a year in the previous decade.
The net loss of forest area slowed to 5.2 million a year between 2000 and 2010. That was still an area the size of Costa Rica, but down from 8.3 million a year in the 1990s thanks largely to ambitious tree planting programs in Asia.
(Reuters, March 24, 2010)
T. rex Had a Southern Cousin
at 3:34 pm on Thursday, 25 March 2010
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/03/scienceshot-t-rex-had-a-southern.html
ScienceShot: T. rex Had a Southern Cousin
For the first time, scientists have found evidence that the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed all over the world, instead of just in the Northern Hemisphere, as previously thought. A partial fossilized adult hip bone found in a place called, appropriately, Dinosaur Cove in southern Australia is much smaller but “almost identical” to the anatomy of the great beast, its discovers report tomorrow Science. The new species, tentatively identified as NMV P186069, lived about 110 million years ago, or 40 million years before T. Rex first appeared. If so, it fits in with the idea that the basic characteristics of T. Rex—including its powerful legs, short forearms and huge jaws—appeared early, while its size grew as it became a more successful predator.
(ScienceNOW, March 25, 2010)
Island claimed by India and Bangladesh sinks below waves
at 11:46 am on Thursday, 25 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cif-green/2010/mar/24/india-bangladesh-sea-levels
For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island has gone.
New Moore island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Kolkata. Its disappearance has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, he said.
“What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking has been resolved by global warming,” said Hazra.
Scientists at the school of oceanographic studies at the university have noted an alarming increase in the rate at which sea levels have risen over the past decade in the Bay of Bengal.
(guardian.co.uk, March 24, 2010)
Climate change puts Australian reef on ‘knife edge’
at 11:32 am on Thursday, 25 March 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100324/wl_asia_afp/climatewarmingaustraliaenvironmentcoral
SYDNEY (AFP) – The world’s southernmost coral reef is on a “knife-edge” after warmer seas blamed on climate changebleached large parts of it for the first time, an Australian scientist warned on Wednesday.
Peter Harrison, who has been monitoring the world heritage-listed Lord Howe Island since 1993, said a two degrees Celsius (four Fahrenheit) rise in sea temperatures had drained much of the reef of its distinctive colours.
(YahooNews.com, March 24, 2010)
Is the science settled?
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Is-the-science-settled.html
A common skeptic refrain is that “the science isn’t settled”, meaning there are still uncertainties in climate science and therefore action to cut CO2 emissions is premature. This line of argument betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of science. Firstly, it presumes science exists in a binary state – that science isn’t settled until it crosses some imaginary line after which it’s finally settled. On the contrary, science by its very nature is never 100% settled. Secondly, it presumes that poor understanding in one area invalidates good understanding in other areas. This is not the case. To properly answer the question, “is the science settled?”, an understanding of how science works is first required.
Science is not about absolute proofs. It never reaches 100% certainty.
(Skeptical Science, Marth 24, 2010)
New hominin found via mtDNA
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57254/
A previously unknown human ancestor may have coexisted with Neanderthals and early modern humans, German researchers report online inNaturetoday (March 24).
| For the first time, the scientists identified the novel hominin using mitochondrial gene sequencing of bone fragments, not fossils. The genomic analysis also revealed a hitherto-unknown migration from Africa to Eurasia just under one million years ago. “It’s such a surprise,” said Terence Brown, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Manchester, who was not involved in the study. “You start to think, how complete is our knowledge of ancient human ancestors?” |
(NewScientist.com, March 24, 2010)
Greenland’s ice melt widens
at 11:06 am on Wednesday, 24 March 2010
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36007220/ns/us_news-environment/
Melt along the southern edge of Greenland’s ice sheet is now moving up its northwest coast, a new study shows.
“The ice mass loss has been very dramatic” since 2005, John Wahr, study co-author and a University of Colorado at Boulder physics professor, said in a statement.
The team, led by Denmark’s National Space Institute, compared data from a NASA climate satellite known as GRACE with GPS measurements from the coastal edges of the ice sheet.
Famous Footprints Yield New Insights Into How Fossil Humans Walked
at 10:25 am on Wednesday, 24 March 2010
http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/03/famous_footprints_yield_new_in.php
About 3.6 million years ago, at a spot now in Laetoli, Tanzania, a pair of hominins trudged through the ashfall dumped onto the landscape by a nearby volcano. We don’t know for certain what they looked like (it is generally believed that they were Australopithecus afarensis from the presence of fossils found at the site), but the fossil trackway they left behind has provided scientists with a narrow glimpse into the life and behavior of these individuals. The big question has been what these tracks say about how the prehistoric humans moved. Did they walk like us, like apes forced to stand up, or in an entirely different fashion?
According to a new study published this week in PLoS One, the famous Laetoli trackway preserves the footprints of upright, bipedal hominins that walked in a manner extremely similar to us. . . .
(Scienceblogscom, March 23, 2010)
The Frontal Cortex
at 3:08 pm on Friday, 19 March 2010
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/
The world is a confusing place. Correlation looks like causation; the signal sounds like the noise; randomness is everywhere. This raises the obvious question: How does the human brain cope with such an epistemic mess? How do we deal with the helter-skelter of reality? One approach would be to ground all of our beliefs in modesty and uncertainty, to recognize that we know so little and understand even less.
Needless to say, that’s not what we do. Instead of grappling with the problem of induction, we believe in God. Instead of applying Bayesian logic, we slip into rigid ideologies, which lead us to neglect all sorts of salient facts.
(Scienceblog.com, March 19, 2010)
Arctic animals doing better, but not close to pole
at 10:42 am on Thursday, 18 March 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/17/AR2010031702297.html
WASHINGTON — The overall number of animals in the Arctic has increased over the past 40 years ago, according to a new international study. But critters who live closest to the North Pole are disappearing.
The report by the United Nations and other groups released Wednesday at a conference in Miami concludes that birds, mammals and fish have increased by about 16 percent since 1970. That’s mostly because of decades-old hunting restrictions. The number of geese have about doubled. Marine mammals, such as certain whales, are also rebounding.
(The Washington Post, March 18, 2010)
New Finding Puts Origins of Dogs in Middle East
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/science/18dogs.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
Borrowing methods developed to study the genetics of human disease, researchers have concluded that dogs were probably first domesticated from wolves somewhere in the Middle East, in contrast to an earlier survey suggesting dogs originated in East Asia.
The dingo was one of the breeds studied to determine where dogs were first domesticated from wolves.
This finding puts the first known domestication — that of dogs — in the same place as the domestication of plants and other animals, and strengthens the link between the first animal to enter human society and the subsequent invention of agriculture about 10,000 years ago.
(New York Times, March 18, 2010)
A peer-reviewed response to McLean’s El Nino paper
at 9:54 am on Thursday, 18 March 2010
http://www.skepticalscience.com/peer-reviewed-response-to-McLean-El-Nino-paper.html
A paper published mid-2009 claimed a link between global warming and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (McLean et al 2009). According to one of its authors, Bob Carter, the paper found that the “close relationship between ENSO and global temperature, as described in the paper, leaves little room for any warming driven by human carbon dioxide emissions”. This result is in strong contrast with two decades of peer-reviewed research which find ENSO has little influence on long-term trends. Why the discrepancy? A response has now been accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union (Foster et al 2010) explaining why McLean 2009 differs from the body of peer-reviewed research.
(Skeptical Science, March 18, 2010)
Generous Leaders and Selfish Underdogs: Pro-Sociality in Despotic Macaques
at 9:12 am on Thursday, 18 March 2010
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009734
Abstract
Actively granting food to a companion is called pro-social behavior and is considered to be part of altruism. Recent findings show that some non-human primates behave pro-socially. However, pro-social behavior is not expected in despotic species, since the steep dominance hierarchy will hamper pro-sociality. We show that some despotic long-tailed macaques do grant others access to food. Moreover, their dominance hierarchy determines pro-social behavior in an unexpected way: high-ranking individuals grant, while low-ranking individuals withhold their partner access to food. Surprisingly, pro-social behavior is not used by subordinates to obtain benefits from dominants, but by dominants to emphasize their dominance position. Hence, Machiavellian macaques rule not through “fear above love”, but through “be feared when needed and loved when possible”.
(PLoS ONE, March 17, 2010)
Ocean Fertilization Could Produce Toxic Effects Up the Food Chain
by Dave Levitan – Mar 16th, 2010
Ideas involving global-scale geoengineering projects aimed at sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere have already faced their share of criticism, but new research on one such idea, ocean iron fertilization, suggests yet another question: Do we want to geoengineer flocks of killer birds run amok — the kind made famous by Alfred Hitchcock?
This is clearly taking things to extremes, but a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that seeding the ocean with iron results in blooms of tiny organisms called phytoplankton that harbor high levels of a toxin known as domoic acid.
(Solve Climate, March 16, 2010)
Do “polar bears” exist?
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/do-polar-bears-exist/
Since 1996 it’s been known that, according to mitochondrial-DNA-based phylogenies, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are actually nested within brown bears (Ursus arctos) rather than being a separate lineage. In other words, the mtDNA of some populations of brown bears—in particular, those from the Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof [ABC] islands of southwest Alaska—is more closely related to the mtDNA of polar bears than it is to the mtDNA of other brown bears.
This makes brown bears “paraphyletic” with respect to polar bears: that is, the brown bear species U. arctos does not include all of the descendants of its most recent common ancestor, since some of these descendants are placed within polar bears.
(Why Evolution Is True, March 17, 2010)
Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond? (Diethelm & McKee 2009
at 10:43 am on Wednesday, 17 March 2010
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/19/1/2.pdf
This is a PDF of a formal paper about denialism. Anyone interested in understanding the critical elements of the climate-change deniers should study this and the “5 Characteristics of Denialism”, below, and use these concepts to evaluate any article on a scientific subject. The rhetorical fallacies described here can occur anywhere.
The 5 characteristics of scientific denialism
http://www.skepticalscience.com/5-characteristics-of-scientific-denialism.html
A fascinating paper well worth reading is Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond? (Diethelm & McKee 2009) (H/T to Jeremy Kemp for the heads-up). While the focus is on public health issues, it nevertheless establishes some useful general principles on the phenomenon of scientific denialism. A vivid example is the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who argued against the scientific consensus that HIV caused AIDS. This led to policies preventing thousands of HIV positive mothers in South Africa from receiving anti-retrovirals. It’s estimated these policies led to the loss of more than 330,000 lives (Chigwedere 2008). Clearly the consequences of denying science can be dire, even fatal.
(Skeptical Science, March 17, 2010)