Russian researchers at the Vostok station in Antarctica after reaching subglacial Lake Vostok. (Photo: AP/Arctic and Antarctic Research Insitute of St. Petersburg)

After 20 years of drilling, Russian scientists say they’ve reached Lake Vostok, Antarctica‘s largest subglacial lake, which has been buried nearly four kilometers below the ice sheet for about 20 million years.

The development could lead to the discovery of new life forms which existed before the Ice Age.  Scientists hope to find material that could help in the search for life on other planets – such as in the ice-encrusted moons of Jupiter and Saturn or under Mars’ polar ice caps – where conditions could be similar.

“There is no other place on Earth that has been in isolation for more than 20 million years,” Lev Savatyugin, a researcher with Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), told the Associated Press. “It’s a meeting with the unknown.”

Savatyugin told the AP that scientists hope they’ll find primeval bacteria that could further human knowledge of the origins of life.

“We need to see what we have here before we send missions to ice-crust moons, like Jupiter’s moon Europa,” he said.

The project has not been without controversy.  Some environmentalists worried the Russian team’s use of 60 metric tons of lubricants and antifreeze in the drilling process could contaminate the unspoiled lake.

But project’s researchers have said their drill bore would only slightly touch the surface of the lake. The resulting surge in pressure, once the drill made it through the ice and into the lake, would send the water rushing up the drill shaft where it would immediately freeze, which the Russian scientists say, would seal out the toxic chemicals.

>>> Read more…

Spanking your kids may cause long-term harm

“Spare the rod and spoil the child” as the old saying goes, but a new study from Canada shows spanking and other forms of physical punishment is harmful to the long-term development of children.

The study’s authors analyzed 20 years of research and found, virtually without exception, “that physical punishment was associated with higher levels of aggression against parents, siblings, peers and spouses.”

For the study, researchers developed methods of discipline designed to both reduce difficult behavior in children and help the parents cut back on physical punishment like spanking.

Parents in 500 families were trained in and encouraged to use these methods.

After a trial period, the researchers found that as physical punishment was reduced, so too were the difficult behaviors exhibited by the children.

Spanking and other forms of physical punishment has been associated in past studies with a variety of mental health problems, like depression, anxiety and drug and alcohol use.

Recent neuroimaging studies also suggest that physical forms of punishment could alter parts of the brain that are linked to performance on IQ tests and increase vulnerability to drug or alcohol dependence.

Over the years, parenting attitudes toward using physical punishment have changed, with many countries  shifting instead to a focus on positive discipline of children.  Some countries have legally abolished physical punishment.

>>> Read more…

Sea Monster is oldest living thing in the world

Posidonia oceanica (Photo: Albert Kok via Wikimedia Commons)

An international research team says that they have found the oldest living thing on Earth and it’s a monster!

Actually it’s a giant ancient sea grass called Posidonia oceanica.  One single organism of this species of sea grass has been found to span up to 15 kilometers wide, reaching a mass of more than 6,000 metric tons.

Reproducing asexually, it generates clones and may well be more than 100,000 years old.

The researchers studied 40 meadows of the sea grass across 3,500 kilometers of the Mediterranean Sea.   The scientists developed and used various computer models that helped demonstrate the species clonal reproductive system which they say allowed the Posidonia oceanica to spread and maintain high-quality clones over the years.   The researchers point out that even the hardiest genotypes of organisms that can only reproduce sexually are disappear with each generation.

“Clonal organisms have an extraordinary capacity to transmit only ‘highly competent’ genomes, through generations, with potentially no end,” says Professor Carlos Duarte, director of the University of Western Australia’s Ocean’s Institute.

But, scientists say that sea grass, which serves as the foundation of key coastal ecosystems, have declined globally for the past 20 years and that the Posidonia oceanica meadows are now decreasing by an annual estimated rate of five percent.

“The concern is that while Posidonia oceanica meadows have thrived for millennia their current decline suggests they may no longer be able to adapt to the unprecedented rate of global climate change,” said the researchers in their report.

>>> Read more…

New discovery may allow faster more efficient hard drives

Experimental images showing the repeated deterministic switching of nano islands. Initially the two nano islands have different magnetic orientation (black and white respectively). (Photo: Johan Mentink and Alexey Kimel, Radboud University Nijmegen; Richard Evans, University of York)

A radical new technique of magnetic recording allows information to be processed hundreds of times faster than current hard drive technology allows.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of York’s Department of Physics, has developed and demonstrated the technique.

Instead of using the traditional method of using magnetism to record information onto ferrous material, the researchers used heat to record information, something that has long been thought to be unimaginable.

The researchers believe this finding will not only make future magnetic recording devices faster, but would also allow them to be more energy-efficient, too.

“Instead of using a magnetic field to record information on a magnetic medium, we harnessed much stronger internal forces and recorded information using only heat,” said York physicist Thomas Ostler. “This revolutionary method allows the recording of Terabytes of information per second, hundreds of times faster than present hard drive technology. As there is no need for a magnetic field, there is also less energy consumption.”

The principle that has long been used in magnetic recording technology is that the North Pole of a magnet is attracted to the South Pole of another and two poles that are alike will repel one another. Until this discovery it’s been thought that you had to apply an external magnetic field to be able to record just one bit of information.

But this new method of magnetic recording showed that the positions of both the North and South poles of a magnet can be reversed by an ultra-short heat pulse, which they say harnesses the power of much stronger internal forces within magnetic media.

>>> Read more…

Mmmmm a sweet treat! (Photo: Katy Warner via Flickr)

If you love your cookies and candy and can’t go a day without  your favorite soda or daily ice cream cone, then a new warning about the dangers of  sugar is bound to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

California researchers are calling for sugar to be treated like a controlled substance – similar to alcohol and tobacco – in order to protect public health.

The researchers, from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF),  assert that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The UCSF team argues  sugar is more than just empty calories which can make you fat. The team points out that sugar – taken in at levels typical of most Americans – alters a person’s metabolism, raises blood pressure, severely affects how our hormones send out signals to our body and causes substantial liver damage.

They compare the health hazards of sugar to the effects of drinking too much alcohol.

“There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates,” says  Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF.  “But sugar is toxic beyond its calories.”

The commentary, published in Nature,  suggests than just educating people about the potential toxicity of sugar is needed.

“We recognize that there are cultural and celebratory aspects of sugar,” said Claire Brindis, a public health expert. “Changing these patterns is very complicated.”

Team members assert that focusing on just individual change alone may not be enough to effectively address this issue.  Instead, the team would like to see methods similar to how public health issues with alcohol and tobacco were handled.

(Photo: Ayelie via Flickr)

These approaches might be the same as those used to reduce the consumption of tobacco and alcohol products; such as levying special sales taxes, controlling access to the product, and tightening licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell high-sugar products in schools and workplaces.

“We’re not talking prohibition,” says Laura Schmidt, a health policy professor. “We’re not advocating a major imposition of the government into people’s lives. We’re talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated dose. What we want is to actually increase people’s choices by making foods that aren’t loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get.”

As you might expect, the Sugar Association, which represents sugar manufacturers in the United States, takes issue with the commentary, calling it  “non-scientific and irresponsible.”

The organization says the report lacks the scientific evidence or consensus to justify the report’s recommended policy interventions.

(Photo: Amarand Agasi via Flickr)

The Sugar Association argues it is irresponsible for health professionals to instill public fear by using words like “diabetes,” “cancer,” and even “death,” without admitting the science in this area is inconclusive.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), an organization founded by scientists concerned that many important public health policies aren’t backed by  sound scientific evidence, agrees.

In a statement published on the organization’s website, Dr. Josh Bloom, ACSH’s director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, says, “The peg on which Dr. Lustig hangs his entire argument is flawed. Most fruits have quite a bit more fructose than sucrose. Does this make an apple unhealthy and in need of regulation? The fructose in an apple is the same fructose that is demonized in high fructose corn syrup. You can’t have it both ways.”

We’d like to know your opinion. Do you think sugar is toxic and should be controlled in ways similar to how alcohol and tobacco currently are?

(Photo: Petr Novák, Wikipedia)

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania may have found a way to prevent, and even reverse, a serious inherited eye disease which leads to blindness.

The disease, called X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa (XLRP),  causes early, severe and progressive vision loss.

It is one of the most common inherited forms of retinal degeneration in people.

Peoples with XLRP experience a gradual decline in their vision as  the eye’s photoreceptor cells die off.

At first, XLRP usually impacts the ability to see in dimly-lit areas.  Later, sufferers notice a reduction in their visual field,  a sort of  “tunnel vision,” as though they’re looking at things through a narrow tunnel.

Over the years, as the disease advances, the ability to see in even normally-lit conditions, or day vision, progressively dies, leading to complete blindness.

A scene as it might be viewed by a person with retinitis pigmentosa. (Photo: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health)

The University of Pennsylvania research was conducted on dogs.

However, the scientists say there are enough similarities between humans and dogs – in terms of eye anatomy, physiology and disease characteristics – that the positive results with gene therapy raise hope of developing similar therapies for humans.

Past research shows XLRP is caused by defects in the RPGR gene.  Scientists discovered a region on the X chromosome, where the RPGR gene is located, which tends to be very susceptible to damage.

Consequently, when there is a replication of cells in a part of the RPGR gene called ORF-15, that replication can be faulty, producing a mutated gene.

To correct or repair the mutated gene, the researchers developed a therapeutic version of it, which is actually a healthy human RPGR gene.

Using a viral vector, a common tool scientists use to deliver genetic material into individual cells which can specifically deliver the therapeutic gene to only the diseased or damaged cells, the researchers were able to repair, not only the damaged photoreceptor cells, but also the connectors which send signals from the photoreceptors to the brain.

Dr. Gustavo D. Aguirre (left) and Dr. William A. Beltran (right) (Photo: University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine)

The researchers call the results of this treatment “dramatic.”

In dogs that already had the disease, scientists   were able to stop the retinal degeneration completely. The previously-damaged cells were able to function normally and scientists were able to prevent XLRP altogether if the retina was treated before the disease had a chance to develop.

The findings of the team’s research were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Gustavo Aguirre, senior author of the study and the paper’s lead author, Dr. William Beltran,  both of the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Veterinary Medicine, join us this weekend on the radio edition of “Science World.”

They’ll talk about how their findings could help those suffering from X-Linked Retinitis Pigmentosa. Tune in (see right column for scheduled times) or check out the interview below.

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Other stories we cover on the “Science World” radio program this week include:

• Dependability of Russian space program questioned
• Different blood pressure readings in each arm could signal trouble ahead
• Ancient amber sample shows ages-old natural alliance between fungi and modern forests
• IBM reveals its latest technology predictions
• World’s poor may soon benefit from mobile phone apps

Electron micrograph provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the bird flu virus strain H5N1 (in gold). (Photo: AP)

In December, the U.S. government asked scientists working on a man-made version of the avian flu virus to withhold certain details of their studies out of concern terrorists might use the information to manufacture and spread the dangerous virus, causing a worldwide pandemic.

At the time of the request by the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, details of the studies into the H5N1 avian influenza virus were under review for publication in the journals Science and Nature.

The journal Science reported last week that the researchers agreed to a 60-day moratorium on some of the more sensitive aspects of their studies involving H5N1 in order “to provide time” for international discussions.

Yesterday, members of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity offered an explanation for the action they took regarding the controversial H5N1 studies.

“We are in the midst of a revolutionary period in the life sciences. Technological capabilities have dramatically expanded, we have a much improved understanding of the complex biology of selected microorganisms, and we have a much improved ability to manipulate microbial genomes. With this has come unprecedented potential for better control of infectious diseases and significant societal benefit. However, there is also a growing risk that the same science will be deliberately misused and that the consequences could be catastrophic.”

>>> Read more…

NASA’s IBEX looks at space beyond our solar system

Studies of matter from outside of our Solar System reveal an alien environment which contains material riding on the interstellar wind throughout our galaxy that doesn’t look like the same things our own Solar System is made of.

NASA says the new data – from by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) -  provides scientists with insight into not only the origins of our Solar System and the physical powers that went into forming it, but also the history of other stars all over the Milky Way galaxy.

“We’ve directly measured four separate types of atoms from interstellar space and the composition just doesn’t match up with what we see in the Solar System,” says Eric Christian, a mission scientist for the IBEX program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight center in Maryland. “IBEX’s observations shed a whole new light on the mysterious zone where the Solar System ends and interstellar space begins.”

David McComas, the IBEX principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, believes the findings suggest two possibilities.

“Either the Solar System evolved in a separate, more oxygen-rich part of the galaxy than where we currently reside, or a great deal of critical, life-giving oxygen lies trapped in interstellar dust grains or ices, unable to move freely throughout space.”

>>> Read more…

Developing more effective antibiotics

(Photo: US Food and Drug Administration)

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has become a growing concern within the medical community.  As Doctors continue to prescribe stronger and a wider range of these drugs to their patients, the germs the drugs are supposed to fight are getting wise to their nemesis and are changing in ways to survive making the antibiotics less effective.

One reason for this growing resistance to antibiotics, according to a new study published recently in the journal Nature, is that drug resistant proteins are taking the “good” antibiotics, or inhibitors, out of the cells, allowing them to evolve and mutate as if the drugs weren’t given in the first place.

In their research for the study, scientists at Brandeis University focused on one of these drug transporting proteins called EmrE and how it removes the antibiotic from the infected cells.

“You have a disease and an antibiotic goes into the cells to try to kill it but the protein EmrE takes the antibiotic and transports it out,” says Dorothee Kern, a professor of biochemistry and one of the study’s authors.

Kern adds that a challenge in developing drugs that would stop the protein’s method of transport is that you need to kill specific targets but nothing else.

“The goal would be to find clever ways to stop EmrE from functioning as an exporter while allowing necessary nutrients to remain.”

>>> Read more…

Burmese python killing off mammals in Florida Everglades

Researcher John “J.D.” Willson holds a young Burmese python captured in Everglades National Park. (Photo: Michael Dorcas)

The Burmese python has become a popular pet for some folks. But many who own these constricting snakes find that as the python gets older, it becomes harder to safely manage and maintain.

In order to quickly rid themselves of the potentially-deadly burden of keeping the snake, some release it into the wild.

The pythons have become quite a problem and are considered an invasive species in Florida’s Everglades.  Joining the snakes let go by their owners, are other pythons which were released from Florida pet shops following 1992’s devastating Hurricane Andrew.

A new study reveals the Burmese python has not only become dramatically plentiful in a widening geographic range in the Florida Everglades Park since 2000, but it has also consumed a wide variety of mammals and birds, with mid-sized mammals being most affected.  Reported sightings of mammals such as raccoons, opossums, white-tailed deer and  bobcats have diminished by as much as 99 percent in areas of the park where the pythons and other similar constricting snakes have been known to frequent.

John “J.D.” Willson from Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment led the study.

“Our research adds to the increasing evidence that predators, whether native or exotic, exert major influence on the structure of animal communities,” he says. ” The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound, but are probably complex and difficult to predict.”

The US National Park Service, which oversees Florida Everglades National Park, reports it has captured and removed 1,825 Burmese pythons since 2000.

>>> Read more…

Last week, a massive solar flare on the sun produced one of the strongest radiation storms Earth has experienced since May 2005.

As a result, airlines were forced to reroute some flights that usually cross over the Polar regions. Many parts of the world, which usually can’t see the aurorae produced over the North and South Poles, were treated to a spectacular light show.

Last week’s events could be a sign of things to come as the sun moves toward its solar maximum, the period in which it experiences its greatest amount of activity. The sun goes through an approximately 11-year cycle that takes it from a period of relative calm to a state of agitation.

These three images taken over four years illustrate how the level of solar activity has risen from near minimum to near maximum in the sun's 11-year solar cycle. (Images: SOHO (ESA & NASA))

The solar maximum is expected to peak sometime next year, in 2013.   In 2003, during its last period of intense activity, the sun produced the largest and most powerful solar flare ever observed, up to that point, which was measured by modern methods.

This time, as the sun reaches its period of greatest turmoil, experts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will be ready with new tools.

These tools will help them measure solar activity, giving space weather forecasters greatly enhanced forecasting capability.

Right now, forecasters work with only one set of parameters with data that is taken from near real-time information gathered by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), among others.

But NASA officials point out that they have no assurance of receiving continuous real-time data stream from these observatories.

Chief space weather forecasters Yihua Zheng and Antti Pulkkinen help implement ensemble forecasting, which will improve NASA’s ability to predict the path and impact of severe solar storms. (Photo: NASA/Chris Gunn)

Forecasting by the Space Weather Laboratory could be further hindered by imperfections in the data they do receive. Those imperfections tend to grow over time, all of which can lead to forecasts that may not necessarily agree with the progression of actual conditions.

Utilizing “ensemble forecasting,” a computer technique meteorologists use to predict weather on Earth, NASA’s space weather forecasters will be able to concurrently create up to 100 computerized forecasts instead of analyzing that one set of solar weather conditions as they do now.

These multiple computerized solar weather forecasts, made by calculating a number of possible conditions, allow forecasters to quickly and accurately provide alerts of space weather storms that could, for example, be potentially harmful to astronauts and NASA spacecraft.

Since the new computer systems have already been installed at the Space Weather Lab, NASA hopes its space weather scientists will be able to generate more specialized forecasts.

This state-of-the-art space weather forecasting capability, according to NASA, is expected to be completed within three years.

(Photo: photos.com)

If you think the odds of having a heart attack or stroke in your lifetime are low, you could be kidding yourself.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals some sobering statistics.

Even if you are at low risk of having a cardiac incident in the short term, having one or two risk factors – such as high blood pressure or smoking – still might put you at high  risk of  heart attack or stroke over the long term, when you’re much older.

Other risk factors for cardiovascular disease include  high cholesterol levels and diabetes.

According to the study, if you have any two of these risk factors at middle age (approximately 45 years of age) the chances you’ll have a major heart attack or stroke some time in your remaining lifetime are a whopping 50 percent!

But, if you take good care of yourself and make it to that age with none of those risk factors or have them under control, then your chance of having a cardiac incident is down to 1.4 percent, meaning that you could live five to 10 years longer than those with a risk factor or two.  And that’s regardless of your age, sex, or the decade you were born in.

Keeping blood pressure under control can help lowering the risk of having a heart attack or stroke (Photo: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)

As part of the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project, this study looks at white and African-American men and women. It follows more than 250,000 participants from 18 different groups of people living in the community over a period of more than 50 years.

The risk factors for each of the participants were measured at ages 45, 55, 65 and 75 years.

Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones , chair and associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, heads up the study.

He says the key to keeping your chances of having a heart attack or stroke low is maintaining an optimal risk factor profile.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones considers a risk-factor profile to be optimal when you keep a total cholesterol level of less than 180 milligrams per deciliter, have an untreated blood pressure of less than 120 over less than 80,  and don’t smoke or have diabetes.

Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones (Photo: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)

Even if you have just one small increase in a risk factor, such as a bump up in your cholesterol levels or blood pressure, Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out you can go from having an optimal risk factor profile to one that isn’t optimal, increasing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, doctors usually calculate a patient’s risk of cardiovascular disease about 10 years into the future.

“We are giving incomplete and misleading risk information if we only focus on the next 10 years of someone’s life,” he says.  “With even just one risk factor, the likelihood is very large that someone will develop a major cardiovascular event that will kill them or substantially diminish their quality of life or health.”

Cardiovascular disease, Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out, doesn’t only kill people, it alters people’s lives dramatically and tremendously affects a person’s quality of life, particularly after a stroke.

If you’re a young adult, Dr. Lloyd-Jones stresses the importance of maintaining a lifestyle that will help you keep those risk factors down, lessening your chance of developing cardiovascular disease during your life.

If you're a smoker, quitting will also help reduce your risks of a cardiac event (Photo: Q Family via Flickr)

But, if you’re already into middle-age and do have some of the risk factors, Dr. Lloyd Jones says that it’s never too late to reduce your elevated risk.

He says it’s “critically important” to see your doctor, watch your cholesterol levels and blood pressure and keep them under control as best as you can.  To help control some of these risk factors, he says that a large number of clinical trials have shown there are extremely effective medications, especially those that target cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones says if your doctor prescribes any of these medications, you can reduce the risks of having a heart attack or stroke from 30 to 50 percent if you take them regularly and as prescribed and you maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The best way to keep cardiovascular disease risks under control, Dr. Lloyd-Jones advises, is that you do everything you can to prevent the development of the risk factors in the first place.

Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones shares some of the eye-opening findings of this study  on this weekend’s radio edition of Science World.  Tune in (see right column for scheduled times) or check out the interview below.

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Other stories we cover on the “Science World” radio program this week include:

• Rising CO2 levels are making oceans more acidic
• Widely used chemicals make vaccines for kids less effective
• Indonesia’s Sumatran elephant faces greater risk of extinction
• Acid reflux drug fails to ease asthma symptoms in children
• Scientists to search for life beneath Antarctic ice

Image of the surface of Venus taken by the space probe, Venera 13 (Photo: L. Ksanfomaliti-Solar System Research)

A renowned Russian astronomer drew lots of attention after claiming there is life on Venus.

Leonid Ksanfomaliti, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, analyzed photos made by Venera-13, a Soviet-era space probe that explored Venus.

According to Ksanfomaliti, the photos showed objects – which looked like a disk, black flap and scorpion – that appeared to “emerge, fluctuate and disappear.”

This indicated, he said, that these objects had changed locations on the photos and traces on the ground.

But Ksanfomaliti’s claims are refuted by a number of experts including Jonathon Hill, a researcher and mission planner, who processes many of the images taken during NASA’s Mars missions.

Hill told an online journal his examination of higher-resolution versions of the Venera-13 photos determined one of the objects identified by Ksanfomaliti is not a living creature, but rather a mechanical component.

He points out the very same object also appeared in a photograph that was taken by an identical Venusian landing probe, the Venera-14.  One of the other objects was determined to be nothing more than processed noise.

>>> Read more…

Oldest dinosaur nest found

Close-up of embryonic skeleton of Massospondylus from clutch of eggs at the nesting site (Photo: D. Scott)

Scientists excavating in South Africa say they’ve discovered the oldest dinosaur nesting site ever found.

It is 190 million years old and belongs to the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus.

The researchers say the discovery reveals significant clues about the evolution of complex reproductive behavior in early dinosaurs.

The scientists found clutches of eggs, many with embryos, as well as tiny dinosaur footprints, which they say is the oldest known evidence showing that dinosaur hatchlings remained at their nesting site long enough to at least double in size.

The dinosaur nesting ground is believed to be more than 100 million years older than previously known nesting sites.

>>> Read more…

Saliva HIV test shown to be as accurate as standard blood test

OraQuick ADVANCE® Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test (Photo: OraSure Technologies)

A saliva test is as accurate as traditional blood tests when testing for HIV, according to a new study.

Scientists in Canada analyzed data from five worldwide databases and found the saliva HIV test, OraQuick HIV1/2, had the same accuracy as the blood test for high-risk populations.

The researchers found the saliva test is 99 percent accurate for HIV in high risk populations, and about 97 percent in low risk populations.

The oral HIV test has become popular for a number of reasons, including its acceptability and ease of use.  The test is also non-invasive, pain-free, convenient and provides test results within 20 minutes.

“Getting people to show up for HIV testing at public clinics has been difficult because of visibility, stigma, lack of privacy and discrimination,” says study lead author Dr. Nikita Pant Pai. “A confidential testing option such as self-testing could bring an end to the stigmatization associated with HIV testing.”

>>> Read more

Scientists observe scorpions to learn how to protect machine parts

Androctonus australis - Yellow fattail scorpion (Photo: Creative Commons)

Scientists looking for ways to protect a machine’s moving parts from wear and tear looked to the yellow fattail scorpion for inspiration.

This scorpion uses its bionic shield to protect itself from scratches caused by desert sandstorms.

The researchers examined bumps and grooves found on the scorpions’ backs, scanned the arachnids with a 3D laser device, and developed a special computer program simulating the movement of sand-filled air over the scorpions.

The tools allowed researchers to create a computer model that helped them to develop a number of patterned surfaces to test. The team tested these surfaces by conducting erosion tests on them.

They found that a series of small grooves, cut at a 30-degree angle, gave steel surfaces the best protection from erosion, which they say is a key cause of material damage and equipment failure.

>>> Read more…

Large amount of fresh water found in Arctic Ocean

Map of the Arctic Ocean (Image: US Geological Survey)

A large dome of fresh water that’s been building up in the Arctic Ocean over the last 15 years has the potential to impact weather patterns.

English researchers say a change in wind direction could cause this water to spill into the north Atlantic, which in turn would cool Europe.

In a study published in Nature Geoscience, researchers report this fresh-water dome may have been created by strong Arctic winds, which sped up a large ocean circulation known as the Beaufort Gyre, causing the surface of the sea to bulge out.

The researchers say a change in wind direction would allow the fresh water to flow into the remainder of the Arctic Ocean, possibly reaching the north Atlantic.

If this happens, the researchers say a crucial ocean current which originates from the Gulf Stream, could be slowed.

That would then cool Europe.  This current usually helps maintain relatively-mild conditions on the continent compared to other parts of the world located at similar latitudes.

Katharine Giles, the lead author of the study says, “Our next step is to look into how changes in the sea ice cover might affect the coupling between the atmosphere and the ocean in more detail to see if we can confirm this idea.”

>>> Read more…

The sun is producing the strongest solar radiation storm since May 2005, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

NASA says it’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed the huge M8.7-class solar flare that erupted late on Sunday, Jan. 22 and peaked today, Jan. 23 at around 0400 UTC.

Now heading for Earth, the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) produced by the solar flare is expected to get here tomorrow, Jan. 24. at around 1400 UTC.

As a result, NOAA has issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch. The storm is expected to continue into Wednesday, Jan. 25.

Space weather models at NASA’s Goddard Space Weather Center show the CME is moving at almost 1,400 miles per second.

NASA says this CME could provide skywatchers with spectacular views of the aurora.  Normally, those who live closest to the magnetic north and south poles can observe the aurora.

However, with this storm, those who live further south of the magnetic north pole, or  further north of the magnetic south pole, may be able to enjoy the display.

While the Earth’s magnetosphere should protect us from most of the effects of the CME, it does have the potential to cause havoc with terrestrial and satellite communications equipment.

CME’s have also been known to overload power grids, triggering wide-spread power outages.

Less Sleeps Makes You More Hungry

(Photo: Mitchell Bartlett via Flickr)

Bad sleeping habits can make you hungrier, increasing your risk of becoming overweight, according to Swedish researchers.

The new study reveals a brain region associated with appetite becomes more active in those who haven’t slept all night as compared to those who had a normal night’s sleep.

Previous to this study, the researchers discovered young men of normal weight had less energy and increased levels of hunger after a lost night’s sleep. They say that shows  lack of sleep affects a person’s perception of food.

For this study, researchers used magnetic imaging (MRI) to analyze the brains of 12 normal-weight males while they viewed images of foods – first after a normal night’s sleep, and then after a night without sleep.

“After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat,” says Christian Benedict, one of the lead researchers. “Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may therefore be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight.”

(Photo: Bernard Wee via Flickr)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called sleep deprivation a public health epidemic. Lack of sleep has been linked to potentially life threatening incidents like car crashes, and industrial accidents and also more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, as well as from cancer.

Some of the common causes of sleep deprivation include stress, diet and lifestyle.

For a good night’s sleep, you already know it’s not a good idea to ingest caffeine or alcohol close to bedtime.  But doctors also point to other causes of sleep loss, such as illness, work schedule, responsibilities at home, medication, an uncomfortable sleep environment or having any kind of sleep disorder such as sleep apnea.

(Photo: Kate Ter Haar via Flickr)

Scientists have managed to create a hole in time, making it appear as if an event never happened at all.

It’s not quite Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility, but researchers at Cornell University demonstrated time cloaking was possible, if only for a fraction of a second.

They managed the feat by creating what they call a temporal – or time related – cloak.

Now, before you surmise science has finally uncovered the secrets of the space-time continuum – and that we may one day edit or eliminate bits and pieces of time – I should tell you this accomplishment was made with a sort-of “trick of the light.”  The experiment dealt with the transport of information by a beam of light.

Dr. Alexander Gaeta, a physics and engineering professor, and his colleagues, developed this temporal cloak by creating a gap in the movement of a beam of light.

The object or event they wanted to hide occurred during that gap. The scientists then put the beam back together again without the gap, effectively hiding the object or event.

Gaeta and his team developed  a time lens, which controls and focuses signals in time, similar to the way a typical optical lens focuses light in space.

With this time lens, the researchers first split the light in time into two parts. Then, by manipulating the wavelength of each beam of light,  they sped up one part while slowing down the other. That created the gap in the beam of light.

Anything that took place during that gap – which the light beam would normally interact with -  was hidden or masked.

Afterward, the two beams of light were reassembled back into one.  This was done by speeding up the part that was slowed to create the gap and slowing down the part that was sped up.

The reassembled beam of light doesn’t show any trace of the gap, and no evidence of the hidden object or that the event took place.

So far, the amount of time Gaeta and his team can mask is incredibly small, clocking in at just 40 trillionths of a second.

As far as future practical applications, Gaeta sees it being quite useful in data transmission.  For example, if you needed to put in an emergency message within the data stream of a modern telephone transmission, you could create this gap, put in your emergency message, transmit it, take it back out and then put the data stream back together without ever interrupting or disturbing it.

Meanwhile Gaeta and his team continue their experiments, hoping to expand the amount of cloaking time and finding new practical ways in which this technology can be applied.

The research was partly funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military.

This weekend on the radio edition of “Science World,” Dr. Gaeta tells us more about his latest efforts to mask time. Tune in (see right column for scheduled times) or check out the interview below.

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Other stories we cover on the “Science World” radio program this week include:

• Wikipedia, other websites go dark for a day
• Scientists want agriculture to be priority in climate change talks
• Moroccan meteorite came from Mars
• Biodiversity protects against climate change
• Breakthrough in anti-malarial drug development

Nov. 9, 2011 The Zenit-2SB rocket with the Phobos-Ground probe blasts off from its launch pad in Kazakhstan. (AP)

Did powerful radar signals from the United States bring down a Russian Mars moon probe?

Russian scientists will examine whether a U.S. radar station transmitted radar signals which inadvertently interfered with the Phobos-Ground probe that recently fell back to Earth.

Experts say the assertion is far-fetched.

NASA says the military radar equipment in question wasn’t operating at the time of the Russian equipment failure.

According to spokesman Bob Jacobs, the space agency was using radar in the Mojave Desert in the western United States and in Puerto Rico.

The Phobos-Ground space probe, which launched aboard the Zenit-2SB rocket in November, was stuck in Earth’s orbit for two months before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Chile’s west coast on Sunday.

Officials leading the Russian government probe into the failure say their experiments should help prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar’s impact.

However, some U.S. experts have suggested the Russians should look for causes of the failure closer to home.

>>> Read more…

Headphones put pedestrians in danger

(Photo: Ed Yourdon via Flickr)

It’s easy to get lost in your own little world when your earphones are plugged into an MP3 player, playing your favorite tunes.

But, if you’re out walking, jamming to music and not paying attention to your surroundings, you could find yourself in serious trouble, according to newly released research.

With the music cranked up and your earphones blocking out most outside sound, you might not hear the cars, trucks, trains and other dangers that surround you.

A new study finds serious injuries to pedestrians wearing headphones – especially teens and young adult males – have more than tripled in six years.

In many cases, the moving vehicles sounded their horns, but the earphone-wearing pedestrians couldn’t hear them, which led to fatalities in nearly three-quarters of cases.

“Everybody is aware of the risk of cell phones and texting in automobiles, but I see more and more teens distracted with the latest devices and headphones in their ears,” say study lead author Dr. Richard Lichenstein, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland Medical Center. “Unfortunately, as we make more and more enticing devices, the risk of injury from distraction and blocking out other sounds increases.”

The researchers hope that the results of this study will alert people to the dangers of earphone-related accidents as well as how they can be prevented.

>>> Read more…

Measuring the last light of the Big Bang

Artist's impression of the Planck spacecraft. (Photo: ESA)

This past Saturday, the European Space Agency’s Planck mission finished its survey of the remnants of the Big Bang, although the first results from that survey won’t be available for about a year.

According to the Big Bang Theory, the universe was created following a massive explosion about 13.7 billion years ago.

A half-million years later, the fireball created by the Big Bang cooled down to temperatures of about 4000ºC filling the sky with bright, visible light.

Scientists explain that, as the universe continues to expand, that light has dimmed to a point where it can only be measured in microwave wavelengths.

Using the instruments aboard the Planck spacecraft, launched in May 2009, ESA scientists are studying various patterns that were imprinted in the light left by the Big Bang. They hope it will help them understand the very beginnings of our universe, long before galaxies and stars were first formed.

The results of this survey are widely anticipated by scientists. ESA will release the data in two stages; the first 15.5 months’ worth in early 2013, and then the data from the entire mission will be released a year after that.

>>> Read more…

Should we get rid of the leap second?

(Photo: Chris Beach via Flickr)

This is a leap year, which means that instead of the normal 28 days, February 2012 will get an extra or “leap” day this year.  But did you know that for at least the past 40 years, we’ve also had leap seconds?

Scientists have padded our measurement of time to keep the super accurate atomic clocks from getting ahead of solar time due to variations of Earth’s orbit.

After 10 years of discussion, the matter of whether the leap second stays or goes will be put to a vote this week at a meeting of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva.

Those who support eliminating the leap second – breaking the centuries-long link between sunrise and sunset – say it would provide a more steady and accurate time than we have today.

Those who oppose the proposal say that, despite being hard to predict more than six months in advance, leap seconds have been used successfully since 1972.

Many in the United States and France want to eliminate the leap second.

However, China worries the change could hurt astronomers, who need to be able to compare and refer to observations made over thousands of years as part of their work.

It also seems that Britain isn’t too keen on the idea either; warning that eliminating the leap second could spell the end of Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, as a meaningful measure.

What are your thoughts on this?  Should we keep or get rid of the leap second?

>>> Read more..