Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake

Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by.

In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere during an earthquake.

Last year, we looked at some fascinating data from the DEMETER spacecraft showing a significant increase in ultra-low frequency radio signals before the magnitude 7 Haiti earthquake in January 2010

Today, Dimitar Ouzounov at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland and a few buddies present the data from the Great Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan on 11 March. Their results, although preliminary, are eye-opening.

They say that before the M9 earthquake, the total electron content of the ionosphere increased dramatically over the epicentre, reaching a maximum three days before the quake struck.

At the same time, satellite observations showed a big increase in infrared emissions from above the epicentre, which peaked in the hours before the quake. In other words, the atmosphere was heating up.

These kinds of observations are consistent with an idea called the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mechanism. The thinking is that in the days before an earthquake, the great stresses in a fault as it is about to give cause the releases large amounts of radon.

The radioactivity from this gas ionises the air on a large scale and this has a number of knock on effects. Since water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, ionisation triggers the large scale condensation of water.

But the process of condensation also releases heat and it is this that causes infrared emissions. “Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data,” say Ouzounov and co.

These emissions go on to effect the ionosphere and its total electron content.

It certainly makes sense that the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere are coupled in a way that can be measured when one of them is perturbed. The question is to what extent the new evidence backs up this idea.

The Japan earthquake is the largest to have struck the island in modern times and will certainly turn out to be among the best studied. If good evidence of this relationship doesn’t emerge from this data, other opportunities will be few and far between.

via Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake  – Technology Review.

China farmers face ‘exploding’ watermelon problem

According to the Xinhua news agency, 20 farmers in a village in Jiangsu province planted imported seeds from Japan, with 10 households saying their watermelons began exploding last month.

Farmer Liu Mingsuo told Xinhua that more than two-thirds of his crop had blown up.

He said he had used chemicals to boost their growth on 6 May, and the following day more than 180 melons exploded. Mr Liu was reported to be the only farmer from the 10 households who used chemicals.

Wang Dehong, who has been farming watermelons for 20 years, couldn’t understand why his fruit also exploded as he had not used any chemicals.

Agricultural experts investigating the incident were unable to offer an explanation.

China has approved the usage of the growth chemical under certain quotas. So far, tests show the chemical is safe, Xinhua reported.

However, as the public is increasingly concerned about food safety, experts say a quality tracking system should be introduced, detailing every stage along the food chain, to inform the public fully, and ensure food safety.

via BBC News – China farmers face ‘exploding’ watermelon problem.

Okay, this is a misleading photo. They more just break open, but this is more dramatic.

Tiny iron spheres are oldest fossilized space dust

Japanese researchers have discovered the first micrometeorites known to land on Earth. No larger than droplets of fog, the spherical, iron-rich particles arrived 240 million years ago, 50 million years before the previous record-holding space dust. “These are the the oldest fossil micrometeorites I’ve ever heard of, and the preservation is fantastic. They look exactly like their modern equivalents,” said geologist Susan Taylor of the U.S. Army Corps of engineers, who wasn’t involved in the work, published in Geology May 4. “If we can figure out where these things came from, they can help inform us about the history of the solar system.”

Meteorites and micrometeorites come from comets and asteroids, many as old as the Solar System itself. Although larger space rocks are more popular, they’re exceedingly rare. The overwhelming majority of extraterrestrial material is dust, of which some 30,000 tons falls from space each year..

About 90 percent vaporizes while passing through the Earth’s atmosphere, producing the sparks seen during meteor showers. Of what makes it to the ground, a small fraction gets stuck in mud, clay and other sediment that becomes fossilized.

By finding and comparing rare collections that span the geologic record, researchers can make guesses about cosmic conditions that Earth experienced throughout its history. Trouble is, the farther back in time geologists go, the harder it is to find well-preserved micrometeorites.

“I gave up trying to find them years ago,” said Taylor. “These aren’t tough particles. They’re fragile. Just a little acid etches out their glass, causing them to disintegrate. It’s amazing we find ones this old at all.” …

via The Archaeology News Network: Tiny iron spheres are oldest fossilized space dust.

Exoplanet near Gliese 581 star ‘could host life’

A red dwarf star 20 light-years away is again providing hints that it hosts the first definitively habitable planet outside our Solar System.

The planet Gliese 581d is at the colder outer edge of the “Goldilocks zone” in which liquid water can be sustained.

Now a study in Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests its atmosphere may keep things warm enough for water.

The solar system also hosts another contender for habitability, unconfirmed planet Gliese 581g announced in 2010.

However, the existence of that planet has since been called into question.

Gliese 581d is less controversial; it was discovered along with the planet Gliese 581c in 2007, occupying the outer and inner edges of the Goldilocks zone, respectively.

Gliese 581c was soon determined to be too close to its host star to sustain water, with a surface temperature exceeding 1,000C.

Conversely, the outlying planet 581d – with a mass about six times that of the Earth and twice its size – was initially taken to be too cold to have liquid water.

Now, French researchers have run computer simulations of the planet’s atmosphere, arguing that it is likely to contain high concentrations of carbon dioxide.

They contend that conditions could be suitable for oceans of liquid water as well as clouds and rainfall.

However, Gliese 581d’s denser air and dim red light from its host star would make for a murky environment that would be toxic to humans.

Robin Wordsworth, a member of the team from the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris, said that the findings were further evidence that the sheer variety of planets and environments far outpaced that which we see in our own Solar System.

Dr Wordsworth said that the simulations are tantamount to a first definitive claim for a habitable exoplanet.

via BBC News – Exoplanet near Gliese 581 star ‘could host life’.

The $650 test that tells you how long you’ll live

Scientists behind the €500 (£435) test said it will be possible to tell whether a person’s “biological age”, as measured by the length of their telomeres, is older or younger than their actual chronological age.

Medical researchers believe that telomere testing will become widespread within the next five or 10 years, but there are already some scientists who question its value and whether there should be stronger ethical controls over its wider use. In addition to concerns about how people will react to a test for how “old” they really are, some scientists are worried that telomere testing may be hijacked by unscrupulous organisations trying to peddle unproven anti-ageing remedies and other fake elixirs of life.

The results of the tests might also be of interest to companies offering life-insurance policies or medical cover that depend on a person’s lifetime risk of falling seriously ill or dying prematurely. However, there is a growing body of scientific opinion that says testing the length of a person’s telomeres could provide vital insights into the risk of dying prematurely from a range of age-related disorders, from cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer’s and cancer. “We know that people who are born with shorter telomeres than normal also have a shorter lifespan. We know that shorter telomeres can cause a shorter lifespan,” said Maria Blasco of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, who is the inventor of the new commercial telomere test. “But we don’t know whether longer telomeres are going to give you a longer lifespan. That’s not really known in humans,” she added.

“What is new about this test is that it is very precise. We can detect very small differences in telomere length and it is a very simple and fast technique where many samples can be analysed at the same time. Most importantly, we are able to determine the presence of dangerous telomeres – those that are very short.”

Dr Blasco’s company, Life Length, is in talks with medical diagnostic companies across Europe, including the UK, to market the test and collect blood samples for analysis in Spain. A deal with a company operating in Britain is likely within a year, she said.

“We need to have a clinical company to send us the blood [samples]. We are in contact with several groups in the UK who are interested,” Dr Blasco said.

Life Length is anticipating hundreds of requests from people wanting to have their telomeres tested and is expecting demand from thousands more once the company is able to bring down the cost of the test as public demand increases. …

via The £400 test that tells you how long you’ll live – Science, News – The Independent.

Would you want to know?

Blind man confused over ‘mystery enema’

The 53-year-old Californian man answered the door to a woman who claimed she was there to give him an enema.

As the man had recently undergone intestinal surgery, he assumed the visit was part of his rehabilitation and allowed the woman into his home to perform the procedure.

The woman took him into the bedroom, had him drop his trousers and lie face down on his bed, before performing the enema in less than two minutes.

A day later, the man began wondering about his experience and contacted the Sonoma Police Department to report the incident.

The investigating officer contacted the man’s doctor and was told that an enema had not been prescribed, ordered or approved.

Due to the condition of the man’s eyesight, he was unable to offer police a description of the mystery woman and she left no clues of her identity at the scene.

Sonoma police have now turned the case over to the domestic and sexual assault unit of the Sonoma Sheriff’s Office, who have yet to make sense of the incident.

via Blind man confused over ‘mystery enema’ | Metro.co.uk.

Girl with tumour ‘saved by toothbrush’

A two-year-old girl diagnosed with a deadly cancer may have been saved by her £3 toothbrush.

Katie Lolley was found to have a rare eye tumour after a flashing light on the Tesco brush alerted her mother to an abnormal white reflection on her eye, reports The Sun.

Retinoblastoma is a rare, rapidly developing tumour which generally affects children under the age of six, and can treble in size in just ten days.

Medics say they had caught it just in time to save Katie’s life, and will reportedly perform an emergency operation to remove her eye.

“If it wasn’t for that flashing toothbrush, we may never have seen the tumour – at least, not till it was too late,” said Katie’s mother Rebecca, 29.

“We bought the brush because Katie liked the look of it. It has a bear on it called Billy, and when you press the button on the front, the light flashes for 60 seconds – which is how long kids need to brush for.

“When we got it home, we turned the bathroom lights out so Katie could try it. She loved it but, when I looked at her face in the dark, I could see the lights creating a strange white reflection in one eye. At that point, we decided to take her straight to the hospital.”

The most common signs of the tumour’s existence are an abnormal pupil that tends to reflect light rather like a cat’s eye, and a squint.

A white, distorted glow in the eye is often seen in photographs taken with a flash. …

via Girl with tumour ‘saved by toothbrush’ – Yahoo! News.

Strange Exits: Cops find man sawing off his own leg in grisly muder-suicide in Massachusetts

(patriotledger.com)” href=”http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2011/04/28/450×282-alg_plymouth_saw.jpg” target=”_blank”>Cops stumbled upon a horrific murder-suicide when they arrived at a Massachusetts home to find a man cutting his own leg with a power saw.
Police in Plymouth, Mass. had been called to the house late Monday by concerned relatives.

When they opened the door, they witnessed Keith Lincoln pick up a circular saw and cut into one of his legs causing “serious injury,” said District attorney Timothy Cruz.

As they continued inside, they found a dead woman and two dead dogs, police said.

Lincoln, 49, was rushed to a hospital, where he died from blood loss.

It was not immediately clear how the woman died, but police are investigating it as a murder-suicide.

Authorities said they would have to rely on dental records to confirm the woman’s identity because of the condition of her body, The Boston Globe reported.

Officials did not know how the dogs died.

Neighbors said Lincoln lived with his wife, Jettie and that the couple had moved from Vermont last year.

via Cops find man sawing off his own leg in grisly muder-suicide in Massachusetts – New York Daily News.

White Bigfoot Sighted, Well, Yesterday!

Thomas Terry (“Tom”) Graham, Medford, of State of Jefferson Sasquatch Research, who is a member of Team Bigfootology, has reported that on May 14, 2011, on a hillside four miles from O’Brien, Oregon, that he and his research companion encountered a seven (7) foot tall white Sasquatch. The hairy hominoid saw them and bolted up a steep incline. Graham gave out about four calls and it called back as it went into the local trees and forest. Further investigations are ongoing at the site. A white Sasquatch costume does exist, but who would that fool?

via Cryptomundo » White Bigfoot Sighted, Well, Yesterday!.

Scottish scientists make ‘mind-reading machine’ breakthrough

Scottish scientists have come a step closer to creating a “mind-reading machine” that can show mental images.

A team from the University of Glasgow have successfully decoded brain signals related to vision.

Six volunteers were shown images of people’s faces displaying different emotions such as happiness, fear and surprise.

In a series of trials, parts of the images were randomly covered so that, for example, only the eyes or mouth were visible. Participants were then asked to identify the emotion being displayed while electrodes attached to the scalp measured the volunteers’ brainwaves.

The scientists were able to show that brainwaves varied greatly according to which part of the face was being looked at.

“Beta” waves, with a frequency of 12 hertz, carried information about the eyes, while four hertz “theta” waves were linked to the mouth.

Information was also encoded by the phase, or timing, of the brainwave, and less so by its amplitude, or strength.

Professor Philippe Schyns, who led the study, said: “It’s a bit like unlocking a scrambled television channel. Before, we could detect the signal but couldn’t watch the content; now we can.

“How the brain encodes the visual information that enables us to recognise faces and scenes has long been a mystery. While we are able to detect EEG activity in certain areas of the brain when particular tasks are performed, we’ve not known what information is being carried in those brainwaves.

“What we have done is to find a way of decoding brainwaves to identify the messages within.”

The research is published in the online journal Public Library of Science Biology.

Prof Schyns said the study revealed how the brain tuned into different brainwave patterns to code different visual features.

“It is a bit like radiowaves coding different radio stations at different frequency bands,” he added. “This work has huge potential in the development of brain-computer interfaces.”

via Scottish scientists make ‘mind-reading machine’ breakthrough | Glasgow and West | STV News.

This is misleading. They can’t yet show a picture of what you are visualizing in your mind’s eye.