Scientists discover oceanic carbon capture process

The world’s oceans are known to be carbon sinks, but the process that draws CO2 from the air down into the deep ocean hasn’t been documented.

Until now.

A team of British and Australian scientists have identified huge plunging currents – as much as 1,000 kilometers wide – that appear to be key to the process of storing CO2 in the deep ocean. Those currents, the researchers say, are the result of local eddies (resulting from a combination of wind, currents, and massive whirlpools) that create localized pathways down from the surface.

Published in Nature Geoscience, the research used Argo robotic floats to help explore ocean dynamics up to 2 Km down, along with analysis of temperature, salinity, and pressure data.

The Argo floats – 80 in total – were deployed in 2002 and collected data for ten years as the basis of this research. CTD (conductivity, density and temperature) profilers were also used to collect data at depths of up to 7 Km, the researchers say.

The Southern Ocean is an important carbon sink (at least for those who believe that anthropogenic carbon emissions are driving climate change – a list which now includes formerly skeptical scientist Richard Muller). It’s calculated to take up as much as 40 percent of the CO2 absorbed by oceans (which in turn soak up a quarter of total annual emissions).

The British Antarctic Survey’s Dr Jean-Baptiste Sallée says the study means scientists are “better placed to understand the effects of changing climate and future carbon absorption by the ocean.”

Collaborator Dr Richard Matear of Australia’s CSIRO noted that while observations had measured the CO2 found in the deep ocean, it’s important to identify the pathways used to get there – particularly since significant climate change could change the behavior of those processes.

Southern Ocean currents are also affected by other atmospheric changes like ozone depletion, which could also change its effectiveness as a carbon sink.

He told The Conversation that the processes the team is researching “sets how much carbon the ocean can take up”.

As well as mapping the processes for incorporation in future modeling, the scientists believe the research could also help assess the effectiveness of methods proposed to increase the ocean’s carbon capture. …

via Boffins nail oceanic carbon capture process • The Register.

Why do I hate the word “boffins” so much? Why do I want to slap anyone who says it with a dead salmon? I know why… because it sounds like a portmanteau of “buffoons” and “coffins.”  Just use the word “scientists” and stop trying to be cute.

Afghanistan Veterans With Genital Wounds Receive Little Help From Pentagon

For the growing number of soldiers and Marines whose genitals are damaged or destroyed by blasts from improvised explosive devices while in combat, the Pentagon has decided it will not provide some critical reproductive health benefits.

To put it bluntly, if you are sent to war and an IED blast blows off your testicles, the U.S. government will not pay for your wife to have in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination using donated sperm.

The new policy, quietly adopted without announcement by the Defense Department, responds to the growing demands of the more than 1,800 veterans with genital wounds that the government that sent them to war now help them return to normal life, including raising a family.

The policy authorizes payment for some reproductive procedures for the first time, including limited in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. But it also specifically excludes covering males who cannot produce sperm. “Third-party donations and surrogacy are not covered benefits,” the policy states firmly.

The Pentagon decision dashes the hopes of a growing number of young Americans wounded in combat and unable to produce sperm who had wanted to start a family. In one recent U.S. military study, the average age of those with genital wounds was 24 years. The majority of those in military service — 56 percent — are married.

Pentagon officials were not immediately available to explain their decision to deny benefits to couples like Heather and Mark Litynski, a Marine who lost both legs and his left arm, along with his testicles, to an IED blast in Afghanistan almost two years ago. …

via Afghanistan Veterans With Genital Wounds Receive Little Help From Pentagon.

It is so easy to ignore the horrors of war with so little coverage of it in the mainstream news. Yes, you might join the Army and then have your nuts blown off, son.  The Pentagon won’t help you make a family in that case, just so you know… And for some reason not many recruiters go over these little details.

UC Physics Professor Flips: The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic

RICHARD A. MULLER, professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley  – CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

My total turnaround, in such a short time, is the result of careful and objective analysis by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which I founded with my daughter Elizabeth. Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.

These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming. In its 2007 report, the I.P.C.C. concluded only that most of the warming of the prior 50 years could be attributed to humans. …

What has caused the gradual but systematic rise of two and a half degrees? We tried fitting the shape to simple math functions (exponentials, polynomials), to solar activity and even to rising functions like world population. By far the best match was to the record of atmospheric carbon dioxide, measured from atmospheric samples and air trapped in polar ice.

Just as important, our record is long enough that we could search for the fingerprint of solar variability, based on the historical record of sunspots. That fingerprint is absent. Although the I.P.C.C. allowed for the possibility that variations in sunlight could have ended the “Little Ice Age,” a period of cooling from the 14th century to about 1850, our data argues strongly that the temperature rise of the past 250 years cannot be attributed to solar changes. This conclusion is, in retrospect, not too surprising; we’ve learned from satellite measurements that solar activity changes the brightness of the sun very little.

How definite is the attribution to humans? The carbon dioxide curve gives a better match than anything else we’ve tried. Its magnitude is consistent with the calculated greenhouse effect — extra warming from trapped heat radiation. These facts don’t prove causality and they shouldn’t end skepticism, but they raise the bar: to be considered seriously, an alternative explanation must match the data at least as well as carbon dioxide does. Adding methane, a second greenhouse gas, to our analysis doesn’t change the results. Moreover, our analysis does not depend on large, complex global climate models, the huge computer programs that are notorious for their hidden assumptions and adjustable parameters. Our result is based simply on the close agreement between the shape of the observed temperature rise and the known greenhouse gas increase. …

via The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic – NYTimes.com.

Lucid dreamers help scientists locate the seat of meta-consciousness in the brain

Brain regions activated more strongly during lucid dreaming than in a normal dream. (Credit: MPI of Psychiatry)

Studies of lucid dreamers show which centers of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves in dreams.

Which areas of the brain help us to perceive our world in a self-reflective manner is difficult to measure. During wakefulness, we are always conscious of ourselves. In sleep, however, we are not. But there are people, known as lucid dreamers, who can become aware of dreaming during sleep. Studies employing magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) have now been able to demonstrate that a specific cortical network consisting of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus is activated when this lucid consciousness is attained. All of these regions are associated with self-reflective functions. This research into lucid dreaming gives the authors of the latest study insight into the neural basis of human consciousness.

The human capacity of self-perception, self-reflection and consciousness development are among the unsolved mysteries of neuroscience. Despite modern imaging techniques, it is still impossible to fully visualize what goes on in the brain when people move to consciousness from an unconscious state. The problem lies in the fact that it is difficult to watch our brain during this transitional change. Although this process is the same, every time a person awakens from sleep, the basic activity of our brain is usually greatly reduced during deep sleep. This makes it impossible to clearly delineate the specific brain activity underlying the regained self-perception and consciousness during the transition to wakefulness from the global changes in brain activity that takes place at the same time.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institutes of Psychiatry in Munich and for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and from Charité in Berlin have now studied people who are aware that they are dreaming while being in a dream state, and are also able to deliberately control their dreams. Those so-called lucid dreamers have access to their memories during lucid dreaming, can perform actions and are aware of themselves – although remaining unmistakably in a dream state and not waking up. As author Martin Dresler explains, “In a normal dream, we have a very basal consciousness, we experience perceptions and emotions but we are not aware that we are only dreaming. It’s only in a lucid dream that the dreamer gets a meta-insight into his or her state.”

By comparing the activity of the brain during one of these lucid periods with the activity measured immediately before in a normal dream, the scientists were able to identify the characteristic brain activities of lucid awareness.

“The general basic activity of the brain is similar in a normal dream and in a lucid dream,” says Michael Czisch, head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. “In a lucid state, however, the activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex increases markedly within seconds. The involved areas of the cerebral cortex are the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, to which commonly the function of self-assessment is attributed, and the frontopolar regions, which are responsible for evaluating our own thoughts and feelings. The precuneus is also especially active, a part of the brain that has long been linked with self-perception.” The findings confirm earlier studies and have made the neural networks of a conscious mental state visible for the first time.

via Science Daily: Lucid dreamers help scientists locate the seat of meta-consciousness in the brain.

Crow’s feet, grey hair and Parkinson’s: Stressful job could make you OLD and SICK before your time

A new study conducted by Finnish researchers has confirmed what many of us have known for years: our stressful jobs are making us age faster.

The research led by Kirsi Ahola of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health measured the length of DNA sections called telomeres and how the lengths varied in association with job stress. It found that people suffering from the most job stress tended to have shorter telomeres.

Telomeres, located at the ends of chromosomes, serve as a type of protective cap to the ropy strands, helping assure that the genetic instructions carried by genes on the chromosomes are accurately translated so cells get the right messages.

Telomeres shorten with age, oxidation and chemical insults. Often, when telomeres reach a critically short length, the cell dies in a process called apoptosis, NBC reported.

Some cells do not die, but rather become what scientists call ‘senescent’ – they start making genetic errors and causing damage.

As part of their research, which appeared in the journal PloS One this month, Ahola and her team analyzed blood cells called leukocytes – which are critical to immune function – in 2,911 people between ages 30 and 64.

They found that workers who experienced severe exhaustion from job stress had significantly shorter leukocyte telomeres than their relatively stress-free counterparts.

But it appears that frazzled wage earners have more to worry about than crow’s feet, wrinkles and greying locks. Telomere shortening has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

In short, being in a constant state of anxiety at your workplace could make you old before your time and expose you to illnesses associated with aging. …

via Crow’s feet, grey hair and Parkinson’s: How your stressful job could be making you OLD and SICK before your time | Mail Online.

UFO Over Olympics Opening Ceremony [VIDEO]

Friday night’s spectacular pyrotechnics display of the most watched opening ceremony in summer Olympics history attracted more than the eyes of over 40 million people. A clearly seen unidentified flying object was videotaped making its way over London’s Olympic stadium, reports Examiner.com.

The disc-shaped object is first seen entering the upper left portion of the video as the fireworks erupt over the stadium. The UFO — which appears to have a dome or bulge rising from its center — moves slowly across the sky as if deliberately observing the light-show spectacle below it.

While NBC Olympics — a division of NBC Sports — has chosen Goodyear blimps for all of its 2012 Olympics aerial coverage, the strange-looking object that appeared over the opening ceremonies doesn’t appear to be a blimp.

So what was it? … On an evening that included an apparent Queen Elizabeth and 007 agent James Bond parachuting out of a helicopter into the Olympics stadium, most people probably wouldn’t have been surprised if a staged UFO was also on the entertainment menu, just two weeks after the U.K. released its most recent batch of UFO documents.

Last month, former Ministry of Defense UFO desk officer Nick Pope suggested that a huge event like the London Olympic Games, could present itself as a prime target for otherworldly craft to show themselves to a gigantic viewing audience.

“With the summer of mass events, we are all on high alert for terrorism. But we must also cast our eyes further afield and be prepared for even the most seemingly unfathomable,” Pope said, according to PressTV.

via UFO Over Olympics Opening Ceremony: A Classic Flying Saucer [VIDEO].

Looks like a blimp to me. Moves like one too.

Apollo Landing Flags: Shadows cast by US flags put up in the 1970s are visible on the Moon’s surface, new photographs reveal

New Nasa photographs show most of the flags placed by crews of the Apollo spacecraft are still standing on the Moon.

Shadows cast by five of the six US flags put up in the 1960s and 1970s are visible on the surface of the Moon as it spins around the Sun.

The remaining flag – planted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the first Moon landing in 1969 – was knocked over as the Apollo 11 craft began ascending from the surface.

Mark Robinson, an investigator with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), said: “From the LROC it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11.

via Apollo Landing Flags Still Upright On Moon.

Claim: Car that runs on water invented

A Pakistani engineer has built a car that runs on water, a feat that left onlookers astounded.

Engineer Waqar Ahmad drove his car using water as fuel Thursday during a demonstration for parliamentarians, scientists and students, Dawn reported from this Pakistan capital.

He said cars could be driven by a system fuelled by water instead of petrol or CNG.

The onlookers were taken aback when they saw it and a cabinet sub-committee lauded the ‘Water Fuel Kit Project’.

The media report explained that the water fuelling system is a technology in which ‘hydrogen bonding’ with distilled water produces hydrogen gas to run the car.

Ahmad had earlier told Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah about the unique project and it was taken to the federal cabinet which asked its sub—committee to discuss it.

During the demonstration, Shah himself drove the car.

The minister said that Ahmad would be given complete

security and the formula would be kept secure.

via The Hindu : Today’s Paper / IN SCHOOL : Car that runs on water invented.

Pakistani engineer has successfully developed a unique technology that uses water as fuel in vehicles instead of petrol or CNG, a feat once considered a farfetched dream. Waqar Ahmad drove his car using water as fuel on Thursday during a demonstration for Pakistani parliamentarians, scientists and students.

He claimed that on one litre of water a 1000 CC car can cover a distance of 40 km and a motorbike can run up to 150 km using this technology. … The water fueling system is a technology in which ‘hydrogen bonding’ with distilled water produces hydrogen gas to run the car.

via TimesOfIndia

Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changez Khan Jamali described the concept as a pioneering effort which could play a role in overcoming the energy crisis.

He said the technology would be this year’s Independence Day gift to the nation.

The minister said all required tests and experiments would be completed in two weeks and all stakeholders, including the PEC, National University of Science and Technology, entrepreneurs in the automobiles industry and researchers, were involved in discussions on the project.

The water fuelling system is a simple technology in which ‘hydrogen bonding’ with distilled water produces hydrogen gas to run a car engine. The technology will be considerably cheaper than CNG and petrol.

via Dawn.com

This via wikipedia:

Engg. Agha Waqar Ahmad is Pakistani Engineer who has claimed that he invented a successful water fulled car on 30 July 2012 on a popular TV Show.^[1] Agha Waqar claimed on very popular TV show News Night With Talat Husain on Dawn TV that he was working on this project from the last three years and after so much hard work finally he is able to invent a water kit device that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Agha claimed that the device will use water as fuel instead of gasoline. The device purportedly split water into its component elements, hydrogen. The hydrogen was then burned to generate energy. In addition to claims of car that run exclusively on water, there have also been claims that burning hydrogen fuel increases mileage. …

If simple electrolysis worked to make hydrogen from clean H2O, then we would have water powered cars already. Most Engineers, Mechanics are taught, it takes more energy to produce enough energy to propel a car, therefore it will never work. You cannot break the laws of physics. They say you will not get enough BTU‘s from hydrogen or egas to push an ICE motor. They are right, Gasoline gets too hot, and 78% of the energy produced goes right out the exhaust pipe. A complete waste of energy is applied everyday we drive our present vehicles and also the heat contributes to the Global warming. With “On Board Electrolysis” with egas or supplied by hydrogen tanks, you don’t need all this heat. What you need is strong combustion to push the piston down. Hydrogen is 2-1/2 times more combustion power than gasoline, with less heat! The inventors below manage to propel a car on hydrogen, Many of the inventors lives were threatened. Yull Brown had shots fired into his kitchen, Stanley Meyers was threatened and eventually poisoned, a few months later, Yull Brown dies of old age. Andrija Puharich mysteriously fell down a flight of stairs. Carl Cella died in prison… here is the list of people who have try to invent water fuelled vehicles.

Inventors List
William Nicholson (1799) experimented with electrolysis.
Isaac de Rivas (1805) He made the first water car.
Rev. William Cecil (1820)
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir (1860) 2nd car that ran on water as fuel.
Luther Wattles (1897)
Rudolf A. Erren (1930)
Henry “Dad” Garrett (1932) from Texas.
Michael A. Peavey (1956) Wrote the “Water as Fuel” book
William A Rhodes (1967)
Yull Brown (1970–1998)
Daniel Dingle (1970–2009)
Francisco Pacheco (1972)
Rodger Billings (1976)
Archie Blue (1950′s)
Robert Zweig (1978)
Dr. Ruggero Santilli (1978 – alive)
Sam Leslie Leach (1978)
Steven Horvath (1978 – alive) Use of radiolysis to a hydrogen cell.
Carl Cella (1978 – died in prison) Heavymetal Rocker/ Water powered Cadilillac
Stan Meyer (1980–1998, murdered)
Herman P. Anderson (1983–2004, died of old age) hermananderson.org
Andrija Puharich (1918–1995)
Joe Cell (Joe X) (1990- TILL THE COWS COME HOME)
Paulo Mateiro (2000)
Bob Boyce (1980 – forever)
Peter Lowrie(2004) He used to run a yahoo forum called EgasPower and had egaspower.com Heeither gave up or sold out.
Edward Estevel
Dr. Cliff Ricketts (1996–2012)
Steve Ryan (motorcycle 2005 & on)
Thushara Priyamal Edirisinghe (2008- on)

Dog ‘sniffed out cancer’ in her owner’s breast

A woman discovered she had a cancerous tumour in her breast after her dog started sniffing and pawing at it.

Sharon Rawlinson ignored her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel for months, but went for tests after Penny stepped on her chest, causing pain.

Mrs Rawlinson, from Newark, then examined herself and found a lump.

Penny was a surprise Christmas present which her husband almost did not buy, because he said his wife was not allowed to have another dog.

Mrs Rawlinson said 18-month-old Penny was her guardian angel.

“I can’t explain how she knew. I just can’t get my head around it,” she said.

Penny began her unusual behaviour in November, and stepped on her owner’s chest in January.

Mrs Rawlinson went to her GP and then Nottingham City Hospital for tests, and Penny continued to paw her while she waited for the results.

Mrs Rawlinson began chemotherapy in March and went into hospital for an operation to remove the tumour this week.

“As soon as I started chemotherapy she’s not gone near the breast since,” Mrs Rawlinson said.

Her husband Brian said the dog was “amazing”.

“There’s a long, long way to go but at least we’ve got half a chance,” he said.

“If we had left it for any longer, because the tumour was already 33mm, I think we would have had problems.” …

via BBC News – Dog ‘sniffed out cancer’ in her owner’s breast.

Sniffer dogs can be used to reliably detect lung cancer, according to researchers in Germany.

Writing in the European Respiratory Journal, they found that trained dogs could detect a tumour in 71% of patients.

However, scientists do not know which chemical the dogs are detecting, which is what they say they need to know to develop a screening programme.

Cancer Research UK said that was still a “long way” off.

It was first suggested that dogs could “sniff out” cancer in 1989 and further studies have shown that dogs can detect some cancers such as those of the skin, bladder, bowel and breast.  …

via BBC News

Claudia Ambroziak Allegedly Chokes Officer To Demonstrate How She Was Attacked

Be careful what you ask for.

Florida woman Claudia Ambroziak, 58, has been charged after allegedly touching a police officer in an attempt to demonstrate how her husband had been choking her, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Officer Michael Garay of Port Orange arrived at Ambroziak’s home after reports of a domestic disturbance on Wednesday morning. Claudia Ambroziak’s husband, Joe, allegedly told Garay that Claudia had kicked him in the back while the two were involved in an argument, and that he had grabbed onto his wife’s neck to restrain her.

When the officer asked Ms. Ambroziak exactly how her husband had choked her, she allegedly leapt off the couch, saying, “I’ll show you how he did.” Garay said she then placed two fingers and a thumb on his throat and began exerting pressure, the New York Daily News reports.

Garay then arrested her and charged her with battery on a law enforcement officer, in addition to domestic battery.

The initial dispute between husband and wife began when Claudia became angry at Joe for not saying good morning to her, according to Click Orlando.

via Claudia Ambroziak Allegedly Chokes Officer To Demonstrate How She Was Attacked.