Frontier scientists

We would like to wish a warm welcome to the Frontier Scientists whose blog started on Nature Network this week. The Frontier Scientists will tell breaking science news stories from field scientists studying the Alaskan Arctic. Their updates will include stories and short videos featuring leading Arctic scientists in climate change, archaeology, volcanology, geology, anthropology, wildlife biology and more. Their blog will appeal to anyone interested in scientific discovery in one of the last great unexplored regions, the Alaskan Arctic. In their first post, Ancient Alaskan Labrets: Jewellery That Spoke Louder than Words they reveal that ancient items of jewellery, often made of wood and stone, can provide important clues about life in ancient coastal Alaska:

According to archaeologist Amy Steffian, who collects and interprets artefacts for the Alutiiq Museum on Kodiak Island, "In many traditions, labrets were used to broadcast messages. They indicated territorial boundaries and social rank. They helped tribes quickly predict how things would go when they encountered others.

Find out more about the functions of these ancient labrets, why they disappeared from Ancient Alaska and what their modern-day roles are.

Theoretically Speaking…

In his latest post, Allee effects: possibly not so effective after all, Mike Fowler explains that even though the Allee effect can be roughly defined by a single sentence, it is difficult to match a succinct, verbal description to a formal mathematical description:

An Allee effect can roughly be defined as a reduction in fitness observed at low population densities.

In fact, there are various definitions out there, which indicates a certain looseness in the field – perhaps surprising when there is a relatively high proportion of theoretical (mathematical models) compared to empirical research on the topic – but it’s the definition I currently find most useful.

You can find out more of his thoughts in his post.

Real Angry Birds?

GrrlScientist has been discussing the ultimate angry birds: American crows. She reveals that they remember the faces of humans who have threatened or harmed them and that their memory probably lasts for their entire lifetime. They also display other angry characteristics:

Crows scold dangerous people and bring in family members and even strangers into the mob. Naïve crows exposed to mobs learn to identify the dangerous person, and they associate that individual’s face with danger and react accordingly.

You can find out more in her post about this newly published research on crows.

Hub News – Climate change and Summer events

Boston Blogger, Tinker Ready, is discussing a study which suggests that the lull in global warming from 1998 to 2008 was caused mainly by a sharp rise in China’s coal use. She reveals a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which concluded that smog from the extra coal actually acted to mask greenhouse warming:

Lead researcher Robert Kaufmann from Boston University, whose research interests span climate change and world oil markets, said the study was inspired by “sceptical” questioning.

Find more links to this story in her post.

School’s out for summer, but San Francisco’s academic hubs are offering a number of July events to keep your brain active during summer vacation. Check out San Francisco’s blogger Shannon Wiseman’s calendar of events which will alert you to the latest science happenings.

London blogger, Joanna Scott, is also updating those in the area with the latest science events. She suggests going to the Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition: Talking primates: human language vs chimp communication on Saturday, as well as a discussion on the science and worries of solar flares. You can also follow the Nature Network London Google calendar of events in London which is updated daily.

Coolant problems

NPG’s News blog reports that a serious incident has shut down the Subaru Telescope indefinitely. A leak enabled 100 litres of an orange coloured coolant to spill over the primary mirror and into the main camera, as well as into other instruments and the structure of the telescope:

The telescope, Japan’s largest, is perched at the top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Mountain, and its prime focus camera, which sits high above the main mirror, moves to track stars as the Earth rotates. But on 2 July, something malfunctioned with the system that is supposed to move a set of wrapping cables in parallel with the camera.

The damage is still being assessed, however you can find out more in the post.

Now onto another coolant problem. Blogger Lauren Blair, asks in her latest update why she can’t get her cells out of the liquid nitrogen? She encourages those with solutions to join in the discussion.

Pinch of Salt?

The Spoonful of Medicine blog, brought to you by Nature Chemistry, are discussing a media report which stated that Cutting down on salt doesn’t reduce your chance of dying. This media report is supposedly based on a new hypertension study, yet authors of the paper inform us that this statement is misleading:

This sentiment does not reflect the results of the analysis, says the study’s lead author Rod Taylor, a health services researcher at the University of Exeter University in the UK. “We are explicitly not saying that,” he told Nature Medicine.

The Spoonful of Medicine reveal that this media report should be taken with a “grain of salt.” Find out more in their blog post.

Denis Alexander is this week’s guest blogger and in a similar vein to the Spoonful of Medicine blog, he is discussing the importance of making science accessible to the general public. Denis has spent 40 years in the biological research community in various parts of the world, latterly as Head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signalling and Development at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge which he left in 2008. Since then he has been heading up the new Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, where he is a fellow. In his post, The language of genetics, he discusses the public’s understanding of genetics and how it is portrayed in the media:

The area of genetics is one that seems particularly prone to being reported in the media or in the public domain more generally in dramatised ways that often distort the actual science involved.

You can discover more of his thoughts and how he makes science clear, in his post.

Welcome to Sciam’s new blogging Network

In his latest post, "Scientific American’s New Science Blogging Network Launches (YES!) ":https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/labcoat-life/scientific_americans_new_science_blogging Scitable blogger, Khalil A. Cassimally, welcomes the new Network to the science blogosphere:

The new science blogging network of Scientific American (part of Nature Publishing Group, as is Scitable) has been in the making the past nine months. Nine months of wicked teasing (and sleepless nights, I presume) by Bora Zivkovic, chief editor and community manager of the network! Nine months of anticipation and building excitement from science enthusiasts from around the world. So, “finally” is the most appropriate word to use here.

Sciam’s network will include blogs from scientists, science enthusiasts and science students, so make sure you check it out.

Finally I can see!

After a serious bout of conjunctivitis, Viktor Poor reveals how he treated his infection:

Do you have any better remedies?