The Great Beyond

Ian Wilmut, the scientist famous for creating Dolly the cloned sheep, has been knighted in the annual British Honours List. He has apparently professed himself to be “surprised and delighted”.

Wilmut, who recently announced he would be abandoning cloning work in favour of research into induced pluripotent stem cells, was knighted alongside a number of other scientists (full list pdf).

Others nominated for ‘services to science’ include Martyn Poliakoff, professor of chemistry at the University of Nottingham. As the BBC notes, his research includes looking at how chemistry can deliver environmental benefits.

Brian Spratt, professor of molecular microbiology at Imperial College, is also honoured. He produced an independent review of UK biosecurity after the Foot and Mouth virus escaped from a supposedly secure laboratory (report pdf).

And in a year of climate change news, it seems appropriate that Godfrey Jenkins, head of the Climate Change Programme at the Met Office's Hadley Centre, is on the list.

The Guardian notes:

But there was no knighthood for Prof Colin Blakemore, who stepped down as chief executive of the Medical Research Council this year. Despite being nominated several times, his outspoken support for the need for animal experimentation appears to have made him too controversial for Whitehall to the anger of many scientists.

Another, probably overdue, honour goes to Steve Furber, one of the designers of the classic BBC Micro computer (news coverage, appropriately enough, from the BBC). Although almost unknown outside the UK, the BBC Micro was perhaps the first widespread home computer used in the country.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Seasonal flooding has hit Indonesia hard again, for the fifth year running. More than 120 are feared dead and thousands have been left homeless after floods and landslides hit near the Bengawan Solo river, about 500 km from Jakarta, Java. The BBC has a slideshow of the destruction.

Such events are not uncommon in Java. "The main trigger is ecological destruction caused by deforestation, forest conversions and chaotic spatial planning," Chalid Muhammad, director of Indonesia's leading environmental group Walhi, told Reuters.

Whether it’s worth pouring money into reforestation to mitigate the damage of flooding has proven controversial in the past, but recent work has pinned down evidence that native forests do reduce the frequency and severity of floods in developing nations (Nature; subscription needed).

One extremist islamic cleric has blamed the disaster on the sins of the people, according to AFP and other sources.

Posted by Nicola Jones
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Officials and specialists are still puzzling over how a Siberian tiger managed to escape from its enclosure in the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor on Christams Day. A story in the Boston Globe reveals that the vertical wall of the enclosure was only 3.8 meters high, while one expert states that a full-grown tiger can reach that height with its front paws simply by standing on its back feet. The guideline wall height recommended by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums is apparently 4.8 metres.

The San Francisco Chronicle is collecting reader comments on this tragedy.

This is by no means the first time that big cats have escaped by leaping their enclosure walls. In November we reported how cheetahs at the St Louis Zoo in Missouri had managed to scale a 3-metre wall three times in the same exhibit since 2000.

CNN has a somewhat grisly list of further zoo escapes and accidents.

Posted by Nicola Jones
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An asteroid being tracked by NASA has a 1 in 75 chance of whacking into Mars in January 2008, according to work from the Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The asteroid, called 2007 WD5, is similar in size to the one thought to have whacked into Tunguska, Siberia in 1908, says AP. NASA expects it could reasonably make a crater about a kilometre wide.

Scientists have previously watched bits of a comet whack into Jupiter, and asteroids hit the Moon, but this would be the first observed Martian asteroid impact (even the Beagle mission, which accidentally ‘impacted’ Mars, happened unobserved).

Though they can’t say for certain whether it will hit the planet, they do seem able to predict where it would hit, should it hit at all: fortunately that ‘impact zone’ wouldn’t see the asteroid wipe out any Martian rovers, like Opportunity.

Should an impact happen, scientists round the world will be keen to watch the dust kicked up by the collision. There’s some nice local colour in Express India on this.

Posted by Nicola Jones
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Every year the British Medical Journal adds to the jollity of nations with a holiday issue packed with silly research. Rather than trying to decide which paper to cover this year, I’m highlighting lots of them for you...

‘Champagne: the safer choice for celebrations’ - Robert J Douglas

After removing a beer bottle cap from inside a 24 year old Australian rules football player, who had ingested it after drinking from the cup his team had just won, Dr Douglas conducted a ‘comprehensive Medline search’ for similar examples involving champagne corks. He failed to find any examples of similar problems. His conclusion: “Since the 18th century, champagne has been the beverage of choice for celebrations and on current evidence should remain so.”

Accuracy of comparing bone quality to chocolate bars for patient information purposes: observational study - Phil Jones et al

Doctors sometimes explain bone structures to patients by comparing bones to either a ‘Crunchie’ chocolate bar or to an ‘Aero’ bar. However after dropping the bars from various heights to simulate fractures and running bone density tests the researchers concluded: “Using Crunchie and Aero chocolate bars to explain bone structure to patients may be visually attractive but oversimplifies the situation.”

Those wanting more chocolate related medicine can read about why the change of another product’s shape is causing problems for those attempting to assess testicular volume: Dissent of the Testis

Sex, aggression, and humour: responses to unicycling - Sam Shuster

What do responses to a unicycling doctor tell us about humanity?

Continue reading "Doctors: med students, but older..." »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Japan’s massively controversial decision to take humpbacks in this year’s whale hunt has been abandoned. Although the hunt will continue, the planned take of 50 of the vulnerable animals has been dropped.

“Japan has decided not to catch humpback whales for one year or two,” said government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura (Reuters).

Some have said this u-turn is a result of pressure from the Australian government. Machimura himself said, “Japan’s relations with Australia could improve, but it depends on how it will see our decision.”

However the Japanese line appears to be that although it hopes the move will improve relations with Australia it was not forced by their pressure. On the BBC this morning a spokesperson for Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research was asked if the move was due to the antipodeans. “That is not correct. It was in direct response to a request from the chairman of the IWC [International Whaling Commission],” said Dan Goodman (audio file).

Continue reading "Japan abandons humpback hunt" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Rummaging through junk in the basement of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, Huw Lewis-Jones has brought to light two penguins of a type never seen before. Drawn by legendary explorers Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton these chalk sketches were probably made to illustrate public lectures.

“We have absolutely no idea how we got them and we are still trying to find a record of them arriving in our collections, but I am sure they are authentic. Some people may think they look a little crude but I think they are incredibly charming,” says Lewis-Jones, historian and curator of art at the Scott Polar Research Institute (press release).

“People often compare Scott and Shackleton in terms of their achievements as explorers and their leadership qualities. Now, albeit with a smile on our faces, we can judge their artistic abilities as well.”

The Great Beyond says: Scott wins hands down.

The university is now appealing for donations so it can ‘save’ – ie restore – the drawings. Example newspaper coverage: Daily Telegraph.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Posted on behalf of Brendan Maher, locum Nature biology features editor

Last night I went to the Philadelphia public television station WHYY, to see an independent film on stem cell researcher Jack Kessler of Northwestern University and the sharp turn his research took when his daughter lost the use of her legs after a skiing accident. The movie is called “Mapping stem cell research: Terra Incognita”.

Shot in stark video, the piece paints an intimate portrait of Kessler, his family and his “other” family -- the postdoc and student working on a spinal regeneration project under his direction. The movie is positioned to put a human face on the ethics of embryonic stem cell research. Kessler is an outspoken activist for this kind of work – moreso even than his college-aged daughter, who just wants to get on with her life.

I was more compelled by the personal look at his postdoc and student, as they test the effects of injecting a self-assembling gel matrix into severed mouse spinal cords and see if axonal growth is able to cross a crucial barrier. It’s a live animal follow-up to the experiments presented in this Science paper.

In the movie you see tense lab meetings with negative results, time-consuming troubleshooting, and that odd mistrust that junior researchers feel about their results that is overshadowed by the enthusiasm of a PI. Ultimately, their paper is rejected from Science without review. Not your happiest of endings, but certainly appropriate.

The screening was followed by panel discussion including science journalist Marie McCullogh from the Philadelphia Inquirer; Jonathan Epstein, a University of Pennsylvania stem-cell biologist; and two bioethicists, Paul Root Wolpe from Penn and Catholic priest and biologist, Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, who appears in the movie comparing embryonic stem-cell research to slavery. Needless to say, it was a heated discussion about the nature of the embryo and the equivocation between potentiality and identity. The roundtable more or less proved that the recent discovery of reprogrammed, or induced pluripotent stem cells, in no way changes the nature of the debate.

The question was raised, but never adequately answered by the main stem-cell opponent in the room (that would be Fr. Tad) whether it would be acceptable to use treatments, if ever developed from these induced cells, based on the fact that they were made possible by research he finds otherwise abhorrent.

The film starts running on US public television stations on 15 January. A listing of screenings around the country is available here.

Posted by Alex Witze
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A new world record in human powered computing has been set by MIT students who used bicycles to power one of the institute’s supercomputers for 20 minutes. As part of the ‘Innovate or Die’ pedal-powered machine contest a nuclear fusion reaction was modelled by the sweat of the students’ brows.

More arithmetic calculations were computed “than were done on the entire earth up to 1960”, according to Techworld. A very energy efficient supercomputer was used though – a chip in the SiCortex machine apparently uses about 8 watts of power, compared to an average laptop chip that could draw 100 watts (Xconomy). Of course there is more than one chip in the supercomputer – Techworld says the “low-powered” system drew 1,200 watts.

“By harnessing the energy creation processes of the sun, our research opens the possibility of limitless energy. But we still need to do our parts individually, such as by using energy-efficient computers in our research,” says John Wright, a member of MIT’s Plasma Science & Fusion Center (Gizmag and Cycling News).

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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A Texas creationist institute has taken another step towards being able to award masters degrees in science education. An advisory council has recommended that Texas approve the degree which the Institute for Creation Research wants to offer (AP, NY Times).

“The Institute for Creation Research equips believers with evidences of the Bible’s accuracy and authority through scientific research, educational programs, and media presentations, all conducted within a thoroughly biblical framework,” the ICR’s website declares.

“They teach distorted science. Any student coming out from the ICR with a degree in science would not be competent to teach in Texas public schools,” says Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education (AP again).

Continue reading "Creationism masters nears approval" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Worrying new research surfaces in this week’s issue of Nature. According to the authors “increasing numbers of scientists are swapping party hats for mouse mats during the festive season”.

Between 1996 and 2006 there was a 600% increase in articles submitted to academic journals on Christmas Day, according to Richard Ladle and colleagues. Ladle and co suggest four possible reasons for the increase: the growth of a ‘publish or perish’ culture; research being pushed into the holiday by teaching and admin pressure; implementation of electronic submission; and changing religious beliefs among scientists.

“Although Christmas Day seems to be an ideal opportunity to get on with some blissfully uninterrupted research, we would urge our fellow scientists to keep their laptops turned off and enjoy a bit of Christmas spirit. You never know, Santa might then be more inclined to bring you that most popular of presents — a paper published in Nature!” they write.

Other people are also worried by the finding. The Ottawa Citizen urges researchers to “stop and smell the poinsettias” (though try not to inhale the whitefly). Meanwhile the Houston Chronicle’s SciGuy blog notes, “Whatever accounts for this trend, it seems a shame that scientists can't enjoy a day of rest and relaxation when most of the rest of are certainly doing so.”

Another worrying point occurs – if you lot keep submitting papers up to Christmas Day sooner or later our editor is going to want us to be here to sort through them on Christmas Day. Please stop, for my colleagues’ sake!

[Some of the links on this post pointed in the wrong directions when it was first online. Apologies for that – Ed.]

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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How do you protect a species that most experts agree is on the brink of extinction? Catch more of them for food!

It was announced this morning that the EU has increased the quota for European cod fishing by 11%. The basis for this decision is a study published earlier this year suggesting that cod populations are recovering slightly.

As we noted then:

The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas is still saying quotas for cod need to be slashed. What is driving these ‘slight recovery’ stories is the number of young cod in the North Sea has shown a slight rise for a second year.

Nevertheless the EU in its wisdom (this is the same body that once considered carrots fruit*) has decided that cod can sustain an 11% increase in the Total Allowable Catch (press release).

Continue reading "‘We’ll save cod by catching more,’ says Europe" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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A speed boat running on bio-diesel with a net zero carbon-footprint is attempting to beat the round the world record. The current record is 74 days, 23 hours and 53 minutes, Earthrace plans to do it in 65 days.

Yesterday it was announced that the boat will set off from Valencia in March (press release).

“I wanted to do a positive project run on biodiesel and take it round the world. Politicians in Western Europe must be prepared to stand up to the oil industry and be more supportive of the biofuels industry to make sure the production of biofuels is sustainable,” says captain Pete Bethune (AFP).

AFP also has the frankly bizarre claim that Bethune is so committed is to the project that he has undergone liposuction; his fat will be turned into some of the bio-diesel.

Earthrace has already ungone some traumas and it now sports bullet holes from a run in with some suspected pirates (Guardian). During its last attempt a Guatemalan fisherman was killed after a collision with the boat, which moves at an average speed of 40 knots (75 km per hour).

Image: courtesy Jim Burkett

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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At last we may start see some real world benefits of all this genome sequencing we’re doing: better wine at better prices. An international team is announcing the second genome sequence of the pinot noir grape.

“This description of the grape genome presents an opportunity to direct genetic improvement or disease resistance,” says Brian Dilkes, academic editor of the paper in PLOS One (press release). “The genome sequence simultaneously identified hundreds of genes, which correspond to enzymes that produce flavor and aroma compounds. This will allow breeding for diseases resistance to proceed without disturbing the biochemistry of taste and grape quality. When I told sommelier Andrew Meadows about this recently, his reaction was, ‘Good! I would love to offer a decent Pinot for less than $30’.”

The Pinot Noir grape has already been sequenced and published – in Nature earlier this year (paper, news coverage). But as Reuters notes, the new team have catalogued the single nucleotide polymorphisms – where a single nucleotide differs between species.

These SNPs could now act as a library of variation, allowing researchers to unpick which genes influence which characteristics. “It is a treasure trove,” says Dilkes.

I guess genome sequences are like wine bottles at Christmas time – you can never have too many. Raise a glass to both research teams.

Image: Getty

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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The US politician who counts the Kennedy Space Center’s workers among his constituents is demanding that NASA keeps the Shuttle flying beyond its current planned retirement date.

Republican Dave Weldon, who represents one of Florida’s districts in the House of Representatives, wants the Shuttle to keep going until 2015 rather than 2010. This will cost about $10 billion and will avoid the United States having to depend on Russia to get people to the International Space Station.

“The 2010 date was really an arbitrary date that was really picked more by OMB [US Office of Management and Budget] than NASA,” says his spokesman Jeremy Steffens (Reuters). “The risk does not increase overnight. Obviously there’s risk and NASA is doing its best to mitigate it. The risk is worth the goals we set out.”

Weldon will introduce an act containing the demand that NASA keeps flying soon, says the Orlando Sentinel, although he doesn’t think it is actually likely to pass. He hopes that it will force a debate however, the paper notes. “It is about our leadership in space and a very important policy issue: Are we going to put our space program into the hands of the Russians for such a long period of time?”

The act would also allow the launch of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. This $1.5 billion dark matter experiment instrument has been constructed but will be mothballed unless more shuttle launches are forthcoming (Florida Today).

Image: NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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American scientists are urging the country not to abandon human stem cells in the wake of the recent successes in cell reprogramming. Worried by proclamations from some that these successes ‘prove right’ the current US administration’s tough-line on stem cell and cloning work, the researchers have gone on the offensive.

Since the recent announcement of successful reprogramming, editorials carrying statements such as “[r]arely has a president - so vilified for a moral stance - been so thoroughly vindicated” have been springing up across the United States. Now the fightback seems to be gearing up.

Key to their argument is the fact that ‘reprogrammed’ cells – where instead of obtaining stem cells from an embryo ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ are created from adult human skin – are not yet safe for clinical use.

“For doing basic research on human cells, IPS as a method has won - it's huge. But for the ultimate goal of getting cells into a patient, it's a lot less clear. These cells may never be useful for direct therapy,” says George Q. Daley, a stem cell researcher at Children’s Hospital Boston, in the Boston Globe.

Douglas A. Melton, codirector of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, is even firmer, saying: “It will never be approved [by the FDA] to put these cells in a patient.”

See also
Follow up of the Globe piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Harvard Pledges to Continue Research Into Embryonic Stem Cells
Follow up in Wired: Cloning Still Holds Stem Cell Key, Say Leading Harvard Researchers
Previous post on the topic from Wired in November: Too Soon to Give Up on Embryonic Stem Cells

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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A giant jet of energy from a supermassive black hole has been witnessed punching into a neighbouring galaxy, with potentially devastating consequences. Any ETs living in the jet’s path would be bombarded with huge amounts of radiation and particles travelling at the speed of light (press release, coverage from BBC, Reuters, Washington Post, National Geographic).

“We’ve seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we’ve seen one punch into another galaxy like we’re seeing here. This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummelling,” says Dan Evans, leader of the study, (NASA press release).

Evans and colleagues produced the spectacular image seen above using a veritable who’s who of modern telescopes,. Together, the two galaxies – the larger one in the lower left of the composite picture and a smaller one above it to the right – make up the 3C321 system.

Witness the power of our fully operational telescopes...

Continue reading "‘Death star’ is killing ETs" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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You don’t get many people waxing lyrical about the giant isopod – a kind of deep-sea woodlouse larger than many dogs. As well as looking like they’ve stepped out of one of your darker nightmares, giant isopods also have the unappealing habit of feeding on the carcasses of dead things that sink down to the ocean floor.

But now the frankly horrible looking things are getting their own tribute CD. An as-yet-unspecified charity will benefit from the sale of the ‘Songs About Giant Isopod’ album. Giant isopods themselves probably don’t need much help – they’re believed to be widely distributed across ocean floors.

Giant isopod fans across the internet are having a field day (here and here) and you can listen to some of the tracks online, including the one this blog-post is named after, ‘An isopod is cute in the eyes of an isopod’:
“Just because we’re not as cute as kittens and things, doesn’t mean we deserve to go extinct* ... Though we may look gruesome, it’s just evolution.”

* as far as I can tell this is artistic licence, giant arthropods aren’t listed as endangered by the IUCN.

Image: underside of a giant isopod captured by Bob Carney of Louisiana State University (more, image link) / NOAA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Pictures of stick-thin models may be off the hook for triggering eating disorders. A new study adds to evidence that anorexics’ brains are actually wired differently and they are born with a susceptibility to the condition.

Headlines on the reporting of this study, illustrated with photos of suitable models of course, have included
Anorexia not models’ fault - The Sun
Anorexia ‘cannot be picked up by looking at photographs of super-thin models’ – The Times

However there seems to be a slight problem with this conclusion, at least to my mind: the study did not involve pictures of models at all. Nor did it investigate what might trigger anorexia; it actually looked at the brains of recovered anorexics.

Continue reading "Anorexia ‘can’t be caught from photos’" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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A ship deliberately frozen into the Arctic ice is nearly free. A little over a year after the Tara was encased in the ice north of Russia it is expected to be released somewhere between Greenland and Svalbard.

Ice around the ship has already cracked, forcing scientists manning the various instruments they had deployed on the ice around her back on board.

“Within the space of 15 minutes our ‘back garden’ transformed into a mass of fractured blocks with open water between. Heaving on a slight swell and jostling amongst the ice floes Tara found her level floating line,” says Grant Redvers, expedition leader, on the ship’s log for 13 December.

Continue reading "After a year in the ice, science ship breaks free" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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What’s been on The Great Beyond this week and a few extras...

Monday December 10
Stripping for science / Nuclear lab hacking linked to China / Shuttle and Euro lab grounded / James Watson ‘16% black’ claim

Tuesday December 11
Science tattoo collection reaches 100 / Penguins and global warming / Wheel of Spirit hints at life on Mars / Is evolution speeding up?

Wednesday December 12
‘Giant spider eats space shuttle’ / Dino of the day – Student-o-saurs / Magnetic ropes power 40,000kmh aurora storm

Thursday December 13
How hot was 2007? / Arctic ice – never say die / Saturn’s rings are older than we thought

Friday December 14
Someone’s got it in for the ISS / Flowering bamboo brings out the rats / Coral reefs are on the ropes

Other Nature blog posts you may have missed
In the Field – seismologists detect ‘footquakes from celebrating football fans
The Sceptical Chymist – chemistry and cooking
Spoonful of Medicine – being inclusive for the sake of political correctness

Ones that got away
Fin whale feeding time, from the NY Times
The strange case of an engineering professor’s Wikipedia ban, from the Guardian
Poachers have decimated the European eel population, from The Times

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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If you like coral reefs you should enjoy them while you can, they won’t be around for long. Global warming and the ocean acidification that comes with it will decimate reefs by the end of this century, according to a new review article in Science.

“The impact of climate change on coral reefs is much closer than we appreciated. It's just around the corner,” says study author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of the University of Queensland. “... The warmer and more acidic oceans caused by the rise of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels threaten to destroy coral reef ecosystems, exposing people to flooding, coastal erosion and the loss of food and income from reef-based fisheries and tourism. And this is happening just when many nations are hoping that these industries would allow them to alleviate their impoverished state.” (Reuters ... Telegraph)

Although there is no new original research here, when all the numbers are brought together they are pretty frightening. Atmospheric carbon dioxide will exceed 500 parts per million sometime between 2050 and 2100. This will drive global temperatures up at least 2°C, “values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved” says the paper.

It adds ominously, “Under these conditions, reefs will become rapidly eroding rubble banks such as those seen in some inshore regions of the Great Barrier Reef, where dense populations of corals have vanished over the past 50 to 100 years.”

Continue reading "Coral reefs are on the ropes" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Flowering bamboo in India is leading to a plague of rats that are overrunning villages, destroying crops and costing the government millions.

Bamboo flowers infrequently, and it can go decades without blooming. When it does flower though, the local bamboo rats go wild.

“Rodents are swarming all across Mizoram state, feasting on standing crops and leading to fears of a famine. The situation is indeed alarming,” James Lalsiamliana, an official in the state’s Rodent Control Program told AP.

The government has responded by increasing both the amount of rice given to villagers in the state and the wages they are paid (Times of India). It is also offering a bounty of two rupees ($) for each rat killed. Tails must be presented by anyone claiming their money and piles of the tails are now being burned after more than a million were handed over, says the BBC, which has a disturbing picture.

“The existing armies of rats are expected to survive till December and soon die as they will be left with nothing to eat,” according to Lalsiamliana.

There is an undated first person account of a plague of bamboo rats on Kangla Online.

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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It must seem to the people responsible for the International Space Station that someone up there doesn’t like them. Ongoing problems with its power supply may be added to by a meteor strike, Reuters is reporting.

A spacewalk is planned to see if a micrometeor knocked out a “critical part of the outpost's power system” says Reuters. No other details are provided but any damage could be costly given one set of solar panels is already suffering problems with rotating to face the Sun and another tore when it was being unfurled.

Although this latest problem will probably not cause problems with the European lab that is due to be hoisted up to the ISS in January, it may cause problems with a planned Japanese module, station deputy program manager Kirk Shireman told Reuters.

Image: ISS seen from shuttle Discovery after undocking / NASA

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Far from being youthful tykes, appearing only around the time of the dinosaurs, Saturn’s rings actually date back to the start of our solar system some 4.5 billion years ago, according to data from the Cassini probe (press release, coverage on AP). However, thanks to a nifty anti-aging trick, they look younger than might be expected.

Previously it was thought that the distinctive rings were formed when a moon had a head-on disagreement with a comet. But Cassini found the ages of different rings varied considerably, suggesting one massive collision didn’t cause the rings. Researchers also found 13 objects in the F ring of Saturn, ranging from 27 metres to 10 kilometres in size. Most of these objects were identified by the team as ‘moonlets’ of icy boulders aggregating then separating.

“The evidence is consistent with the picture that Saturn has had rings all through its history. We see extensive, rapid recycling of ring material, in which moons are continually shattered into ring particles, which then gather together and re-form moons,” says Larry Esposito, principal investigator for Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (press release).

What Esposito has shown is not that the rings are as old as the solar system but they could have survived since the start of the solar system. If Saturn’s rings were as old as Saturn, previous theories ran, they should have been darker due to infall of meteoric dust.

Continue reading "Saturn’s rings are older than we thought" »

Posted by Daniel Cressey
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Arctic ice is the story that won’t die – unlike the ice, which apparently will, and soon. Since the start of October, and what I hoped would be the last word on the topic, there have multiple stories demanding coverage*. Now there is more news; the Arctic is screaming...

Reports at the AGU meeting are painting a dire picture of the region’s future, with Greenland glaciers melting faster than ever before and summer sea ice predicted to be totally gone by 2013. There is also a report of some amazing thinning of ice – Alex Witze is at the conference for Nature and has the full details. Here’s an extract:

Don Perovich, of a US army cold regions and research laboratory in New Hampshire, reported on a single but extraordinary ice buoy in the Beaufort Sea. In June the buoy measured sea ice at that location as 3.3 metres thick – “really a healthy piece of ice,” as he put it. But by the end of the summer, 70 centimetres had melted off the top – and 2.2 met