Yellowstone hit by swarm of earthquakes

Image: Still from the fictional movie 2012 where Yellowstone errupts.

Yellowstone National Park has been rattled by more than 250 earthquakes in the past two days following a period of 11 months of quiet seismic activity in the park.

The quakes have been gaining strength, with a 3.1 tremor recorded at 11:03 a.m. today. A 2.9 quake was recorded at 12:38 p.m.

Prof. Robert B. Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah and one of the leading experts on earthquake and volcanic activity at Yellowstone, said that the activity is a “notable swarm.”

“The swarm is located about 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful, Wyo., and nine miles southeast of West Yellowstone, Montana,” said Smith.

Jamie Farrell, a doctoral student in geophysics who works with Smith at the University of Utah, said that as of 3 p.m. today, 270 quakes have been recorded in the past two days.

Farrell said the quakes are occurring in an area about 5 miles from where the largest swarm of quakes was ever recorded in October 1985.

Quakes in the current swarm have ranged in magnitude of 0.5 to 3.1.

Farrell said there have been reports of at least one of the tremors being felt in the park, but he is expecting more reports as the earthquakes continue.

Smith said such swarms are “relatively common.” Today’s tremors seem to be normal tectonic activity, and is “not an indication” that some sort of volcanic activity will occur.

Since 1995 there have been 80 swarms, including the one that started Sunday, Farrell said.

Farrell said that there is absolutely no connection between what is occurring in Yellowstone and the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti.

“They are completely different systems,” said Farrell. “They are not related.”

via Yellowstone hit by swarm of earthquakes – The Denver Post.

Nasa puts Discovery space shuttle up for sale for £17.7m

It is the perfect gift for the man, or woman, who has everything, and it has been heavily discounted.

But you will still need a rather large bank balance to purchase the Discovery Space Shuttle, which is being sold off by Nasa for $28.2 m (£17.7m).

The soon-to-be redundant shuttle was the ultimate boy’s toy, flying faster and higher than any other machine in history. It was originally worth $42 million (£25.8 m) but the price has plummeted to take in the cost of hauling the monster from the Kennedy Space Centre to a major US airport.

Discovery, which has completed 37 missions into space and 5,247 orbits, has already been promised to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, but shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour are still available, the Independent reports.

Nasa is considering mulling the possibility of putting Enterprise, a shuttle prototype that never made it to space, on sale.

Nasa decided to sell the shuttles ahead of their retirement later this year. They are set to be replaced by the new Ares 1-X rocket, which is due to take over all manned space flights in 2015.

If the new price is still too daunting, an even bigger bargain comes in the shape of the shuttle’s engines – no longer required once the craft is in a museum. The agency offered them for sale at between $400,000 and $800,000, but there were no takers. They are now offering them free, to anyone with the ability to take them home.

via Nasa puts Discovery space shuttle up for sale for £17.7m – Telegraph.

Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and Asteroid

Something awfully curious is happening 250 million miles away in the asteroid belt.

Astronomers think they may be witnessing a never-before-seen collision between two asteroids.

The puzzle centers on a newly discovered object that superficially looks like a comet but lives among the asteroids.

The strange object was discovered on January 6 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey. The object appears to be in an orbit inside the main asteroid belt — not a place where comets usually dwell.

The distinction? Comets swoop along elliptical orbits close in to the sun and grow long gaseous and dusty tails as ices sublimate off their solid nucleus and release dust. But asteroids are mostly in more circular orbits and are not normally expected to be as volatile as comets.

In the comments below veteran comet observer Jim Scotti correctly points out that several other weird comet/asteroid hybrids have been reported over the years.

But there is high excitement this time because astronomers following the object are reasonably convinced that for the first time ever they have a ringside seat to watching an actual hypervelocity collision between two previously unseen asteroids. The asteroid belt is littered with debris from ancient shattering collisions, but astronomers have never before seen a head-on smashup in the works.

In the previous cases an asteroid containing ices may have experienced a short-lived outburst. Or, a fragile icy and stony nucleus simply came unglued and the remnants are being scattered by the pressure of the solar wind.

(Perhaps extraterrestrials are playing a real version of the popular 1980′s arcade game “Asteroids.”)

No doubt there will be many more observations of this evolving phenomenon in the near future, so stay tuned.

via Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and Asteroid : Discovery News.

Space cannon to shoot payloads into orbit

A physicist has proposed using a 1.1 km (3,600 ft) cannon to deliver cargo into orbit, and says the cost would be around $250 per pound, a massive saving on the $5,000 per pound ($2280 per kg) it currently costs to make deliveries using a rocket.

John Hunter, from the company Quicklaunch, which was set up by himself and two other scientists, bases its plans on previous work they carried out at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In 1992 Hunter and his colleagues fired a 130 m (425 ft) cannon built to test launch hypersonic engines. Its piston, driven by methane, compressed hydrogen gas that expanded up the barrel of the over-sized gun to shoot the projectile.

The Quicklaunch design has replaced the methane piston with a combustion system burning natural gas in a heat exchanger inside a chamber of hydrogen gas. The combustion system heats the hydrogen to 1,430˚C (2,600˚F), which increases the gas pressure by 500%. An operator then opens a valve to allow the hot, pressurized hydrogen into the 1100-meter-long barrel of the gun, where it instantly expands, shooting the projectile out and into space. As soon as the payload has left, an iris at the end of the barrel closes to capture the hydrogen for re-use. Once the projectile is launched, a small rocket engine then boosts the payload into a low-Earth orbit.

Hunter calculates the pressure would be sufficient to launch a 450 kg payload at six kilometers per second (13,000 mph). The process would produce 5,000 Gs, and so would only be suitable for rugged payloads such as strengthened satellites and rocket fuel. Hunter said the system could not be used as a people-launcher because a person shot out of the cannon “would probably get compressed to half their size,” causing instant death. …

via Space cannon to shoot payloads into orbit.

Giant cattle to be bred back from extinction

Aurochs were immortalised in prehistoric cave paintings and admired for their brute strength and “elephantine” size by Julius Caesar.

But despite their having gone the way of the dodo and the woolly mammoth, there are plans to bring the giant animals back to life.

The huge cattle with sweeping horns which once roamed the forests of Europe have not been seen for nearly 400 years.

Now Italian scientists are hoping to use genetic expertise and selective breeding of modern-day wild cattle to recreate the fearsome beasts which weighed around 2,200lb and stood 6.5 feet at the shoulder.

Breeds of large cattle which most closely resemble Bos primigenius, such as Highland cattle and the white Maremma breed from Italy, are being bred with each other in a technique known as “back-breeding”.

At the same time, scientists say they have for the first time created a map of the auroch’s genome, so that they know precisely what type of animal they are trying to replicate.

“We were able to analyse auroch DNA from preserved bone material and create a rough map of its genome that should allow us to breed animals nearly identical to aurochs,” said team leader Donato Matassino, head of the Consortium for Experimental Biotechnology in Benevento, in the southern Campania region.

“We’ve already made our first round of crosses between three breeds native to Britain, Spain and Italy. Now we just have to wait and see how the calves turn out.”

The last animal disappeared from the British Isles in the Iron Age and the breed was declared extinct in 1627 after a female died in the forests of Poland.

Aurochs are depicted in ochre and charcoal in paintings found on the walls of cave galleries such as those at Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Caesar described them in The Gallic Wars as being “a little below the elephant in size” and a favourite hunting prey for wild Germanic tribesmen.

…

Their abiding mystique means they remain as the symbol of several states and cities in Europe, having figured prominently in Teutonic folklore. In ancient times, killing an auroch was seen as a great demonstration of courage, with the horns turned into silver-clad drinking cups.

The last time there was an attempt to recreate the animal was on the express orders of Hitler. The Nazis ordered a pair of German zoologists to recreate the auroch as part of the Third Reich’s belief in racial superiority and eugenics.

Herman Goering hoped to use the aurochs to populate a vast hunting reserve which he planned to create in the conquered territories of Eastern Europe.

Many geneticists argue that though the Heck may resemble their ancient forebears, they will be genetically very different.

“There are a number of rare breeds that have been brought back to life in recent years, such as the Cumberland pig,” said Dr Claire Barber, from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. “But our view is that what has been recreated is something that looks like the old breed, but which is not genetically the same.

“You would need to interbreed animals that are very close to the auroch in their genetic make-up. The closest you could find in Britain are two semi-feral breeds: the Chillingham and the Vaynol. If there are breeds which maintain many of the attributes of an auroch, then it could well be feasible. It’s certainly a very exciting project.”

If the Italian-led project is successful, it will raise questions of what to do with an animal which boasts a size and temper akin to a tetchy rhinoceros.

“Even the wild cattle we have today are very hard to handle and an auroch would be even more difficult,” said Dr Barber. “Aurochs were significantly larger than any cattle in existence and they would be potentially dangerous.

“There would be some serious management issues – to look after their teeth and feet, for instance, you might have to sedate them with dart guns.

“You wouldn’t want to try to milk one – that’s assuming that the females produced milk when they didn’t have calves.”

via Giant cattle to be bred back from extinction – Telegraph.

Treating panic disorder on the web

An online treatment system for patients suffering with panic disorder and anxiety problems combine biofeedback therapy with web technologies and allows patients and medical professionals to communicate effectively, according to research published in the International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining.

Vincent Tseng and Bai-En Shie of the National Cheng Kung University are working with psychiatrist Fong-Lin Jang of the Chi-Mei Medical Center, in Tainan, Taiwan, to develop a system they say will have a “pivotal impact” on the healthcare industry.

The increasing pace of life, the industrialisation of society, and the advent of digital technology are all thought to underlie the growing prevalence of mental illness. Disorders, such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression are now diagnosed more frequently than ever before.

Panic disorders are not easily diagnosed but do represent chronic illness for countless patients and lead to hospitalisation with increasing frequency. Patients can become acutely fearful and uncomfortable and suffer dizziness, chest pain, difficulty breathing, a racing pulse, and even palpitations, all of which increase the sense of panic and mimic the symptoms of a heart attack or asthma episode, hence the emergency room admissions.

Sufferers often restrict their day to day activities to avoid inducing anxiety and the problem persists can lead to substance abuse and depression. Victims of panic disorder often have a poor quality of life overall.

The team has coupled a wireless-enabled finger-ring device that measures skin temperature with a web-enabled system. The system provides a convenient channel for communication between patients and healthcare worker as well as allowing hospital staff to allow patients to ask questions and download pertinent information.

The key to the system is that patients can also upload physiological data and their self-assessment to the database. The “emotion ring” continuously monitors and records the patient’s finger skin temperature, which the researchers explain is a useful indicator of the patient’s emotional state. It may simply provide a focus. Patients are then taught muscle and mental relaxation exercises and how to observe the effects of these on their skin temperature, thus providing a biofeedback mechanism that can also be monitored by their healthcare worker.

Temperature biofeedback has been utilized in medicine for more than three decades and because performance anxiety can occur during biofeedback a professional therapist must help the patient master the sensation of relaxation, especially in the initial stages of training.

The team has tested the system with ten patients in a pilot study. “Once the patients learned the cues for relaxation and the method to obtain rapid relaxation, they were able to apply the methods and cues to relieve the symptoms of panic disorder,” they conclude. The next step is to develop a related system that works with mobile devices rather than a personal computer.

“After receiving the muscle relaxation program, patients could feel the difference between relaxation and tension, and learned the skill of relaxation,” Tseng says, “The most important is that patients had fewer panic attacks and had improvement in Panic Disorder Severity Scale(PDSS). A large multi-center clinical trial with this system is going on in Taiwan.”

via Treating panic disorder on the web.

Protein supplements are misused by athletes

Protein supplements don’t improve performance or recovery time and, according to a recent study, such supplements are inefficient for most athletes. “They are often poorly used or unnecessary by both high-level athletes and amateurs,” says Martin Fréchette, a researcher and graduate of the Université de Montréal Department of Nutrition.

Fréchette submitted questionnaires to 42 athletes as part of his master’s thesis. Sportsmen were asked about their use of supplements while keeping a journal of their eating habits for three days. They came from a variety of disciplines including biathlon, cycling, long-distance running, swimming, judo, skating and volleyball.

Nine athletes out of 10 reported food supplements on a regular basis. They consume an average of 3,35 products: energy drinks, multi-vitamins, minerals and powdered protein supplements. Fréchette found their knowledge of food supplements to be weak.

“The role of proteins is particularly misunderstood,” he warns. “Only one out of four consumers could associate a valid reason, backed by scientific literature, for taking the product according.”

Despite the widespread use of protein supplements, 70 percent of athletes in Fréchette’s study didn’t feel their performance would suffer if they stopped such consumption. “More than 66 percent of those who believed to have bad eating habits took supplements. For those who claimed to have ‘good’ or ‘very good’ eating habits that number climbs to 90 percent.”

Fréchette stresses that supplements come with certain risks. “Their purity and preparation aren’t as controlled as prescription medication,” he says. “Sports supplements often contain other ingredients than those listed on the label. Some athletes consume prohibited drugs without knowing.”

Other studies have shown that 12 to 20 percent of products regularly used by athletes contain prohibited substances. Fréchette observed a particular interest by the athletes on the efficiency, legality and safety of those drugs.

“No less than 81 percent of athletes taking supplements already had sufficient protein from their diet,” says Fréchette. “The use of multivitamins and minerals can make up for an insufficient intake of calcium, folate yet not for lack of potassium.”

What’s more, consumers of supplements had levels of sodium, magnesium, niacin, folate, vitamin A and iron that exceeded the acceptable norms. “This makes them susceptible to health problems such as nausea, vision trouble, fatigue and liver anomalies,” says Fréchette.

via Protein supplements are misused by athletes.

This article seems to be missing the punch line.  Martin Fréchette, what does the research say about what we should use to build muscle when weight training and/or running? Are all protein powders bad?

New theory on the origin of primates

A new model for primate origins is presented in Zoologica Scripta, published by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The paper argues that the distributions of the major primate groups are correlated with Mesozoic tectonic features and that their respective ranges are congruent with each evolving locally from a widespread ancestor on the supercontinent of Pangea about 185 million years ago.

Michael Heads, a Research Associate of the Buffalo Museum of Science, arrived at these conclusions by incorporating, for the first time, spatial patterns of primate diversity and distribution as historical evidence for primate evolution. Models had previously been limited to interpretations of the fossil record and molecular clocks.

“According to prevailing theories, primates are supposed to have originated in a geographically small area (center of origin) from where they dispersed to other regions and continents” said Heads, who also noted that widespread misrepresentation of fossil molecular clocks estimates as maximum or actual dates of origin has led to a popular theory that primates somehow crossed the globe and even rafted across oceans to reach America and Madagascar.

In this new approach to molecular phylogenetics, vicariance, and plate tectonics, Heads shows that the distribution ranges of primates and their nearest relatives, the tree shrews and the flying lemurs, conforms to a pattern that would be expected from their having evolved from a widespread ancestor. This ancestor could have evolved into the extinct Plesiadapiformes in north America and Eurasia, the primates in central-South America, Africa, India and south East Asia, and the tree shrews and flying lemurs in South East Asia.

Divergence between strepsirrhines (lemurs and lorises) and haplorhines (tarsiers and anthropoids) is correlated with intense volcanic activity on the Lebombo Monocline in Africa about 180 million years ago. The lemurs of Madagascar diverged from their African relatives with the opening of the Mozambique Channel (160 million years ago), while New and Old World monkeys diverged with the opening of the Atlantic about 120 million years ago.

“This model avoids the confusion created by the center of origin theories and the assumption of a recent origin for major primate groups due to a misrepresentation of the fossil record and molecular clock divergence estimates” said Michael from his New Zealand office. “These models have resulted in all sorts of contradictory centers of origin and imaginary migrations for primates that are biogeographically unnecessary and incompatible with ecological evidence”.

The tectonic model also addresses the otherwise insoluble problem of dispersal theories that enable primates to cross the Atlantic to America, and the Mozambique Channel to Madagascar although they have not been able to cross 25 km from Sulawesi to Moluccan islands and from there travel to New Guinea and Australia.

Heads acknowledged that the phylogenetic relationships of some groups such as tarsiers, are controversial, but the various alternatives do not obscure the patterns of diversity and distribution identified in this study.

Biogeographic evidence for the Jurassic origin for primates, and the pre-Cretaceous origin of major primate groups considerably extends their divergence before the fossil record, but Heads notes that fossils only provide minimal dates for the existence of particular groups, and there are many examples of the fossil record being extended for tens of millions of years through new fossil discoveries.

The article notes that increasing numbers of primatologists and paleontologists recognize that the fossil record cannot be used to impose strict limits on primate origins, and that some molecular clock estimates also predict divergence dates pre-dating the earliest fossils. These considerations indicate that there is no necessary objection to the biogeographic evidence for divergence of primates beginning in the Jurassic with the origin of all major groups being correlated with plate tectonics.

via New theory on the origin of primates.

Researchers find a treatment for deadly brain tumor

New research at Rhode Island Hospital has identified a treatment in animal models for glioblastomas – deadly brain tumors which, once diagnosed, offer a poor prognosis and relatively short life expectancy. Using a synthetic form of a naturally-occurring hormone combined with chemotherapy, researchers were able to inhibit tumor growth and achieve a 25 percent cure rate. The study and their findings are published in the Journal of Oncology.

Led by Suzanne de la Monte, MD, MPH, of Rhode Island Hospital, researchers studied the effects of Thymosin Alpha 1 (Talpha1/thymalfasin), a synthetic form of the naturally occurring hormone Thymosin produced by the thymus gland. De la Monte, who is also a professor of neuroscience at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, says, “Our hypothesis was that the immune system basically needs a boost to kill the cancer cells. We know that Thymosin is currently being used in Europe to treat cancer, so we set out to see what effect this could have on glioblastomas.”

What the investigators found is that when Talpha1 was used alone, the tumor continued to eventually grow. When they combined the Talpha1 with a common chemotherapeutic agent, there was a dramatic effect. De la Monte explains, “We looked at giving chemo plus Talpha1 as a sort of immune booster. What we found is that when you give Talpha1 and the chemo agent together, not only do you have a slower rate of tumor growth with cells being killed, but there have also been cures. We achieved a 25 percent cure rate in these animal models.”

Co-investigator Jack Wands, MD, also a physician with University Medicine Foundation and a professor Alpert Medical School, says, “In this study we used a natural hormone that’s been produced in the thymus gland, which by itself has no anti-tumor effect and in fact can be harmful in high doses. What’s important in this study is that we have found with low to moderate doses in combination with a well-known chemotherapeutic agent, it has a striking ability to inhibit the growth of a glioblastoma in animal models.”

The researchers went on to further investigate how the Talpha1 was achieving this response. What they discovered is that it sensitizes the tumor cells to the chemotherapeutic agent, giving the agent more of an impact upon the tumor than it would have on its own. De la Monte explains, “The thymic hormone is actually working to boost immune response and basically activates a killing of the tumor cells.”

De la Monte says the next step is to bring this to a Phase I clinical trial. “You’re talking about a disease where people are dead within months. There is no cure.” Wands agrees and says, “Our pre-clinical studies have shown this striking effect and we believe the next step is to try this approach in patients with this devastating illness.”

via Researchers find a treatment for deadly brain tumor.

Spot the gecko: Reptile fits on pencil top, found with other new species in threatened Ecuador jungle (photo)

A gecko so small it can perch on top of a pencil has been discovered along with dozens of new animal species in Ecuador’s threatened rainforest.

Scientists also found 30 new varieties of frog and a snail-sucking snake – all on the verge of becoming extinct.

Their microhabitat – the Cerro Pata de Pájaro, meaning Bird Leg Hill in Spanish – has seen 95 per cent of its trees felled for farming.

The unique conditions of the mountain slope – a rainforest capped in cloud forest – mean these animals are not seen on neighbouring hills in western Ecuador.

‘There is obviously a great concern that these species will disappear as soon as, or even before, they are formally described by science’, said expedition leader Dr Paul Hamilton of Explorers from Reptile & Amphibian Ecology International.

‘In this part of ¬Ecuador, if you go to one spot you can find 20 or 30 species of frog, and if you go to the next site over you will see a whole bunch of different ones.’

His team also found three species of lungless salamanders and bushmaster snake, which is the longest viper in the world yet is rarely recorded, having been hunted almost to extinction in many parts of its range.

via Spot the gecko: Reptile so small it can fit on pencil top found along with dozens of other new species in threatened Ecuador jungle | Mail Online.