Wendy Science

See Inside Extending the life of clotting factors may improve quality of life for people with haemophilia By For the parents of a child born with haemophilia, the diagnosis comes with both good and bad news. The good news is that the child, at least if he (or rarely, she) is born in the developed world, can expect a near-normal lifespan, up from a mere 20 years in 1970. The bad is that the parents must teach themselves to find their child's veins, insert a needle and infuse him with a clotting factor to replace what he lacks. Parents must infuse a toddler as often as every other day, and children with haemophilia will have to continue that treatment for the rest of their lives. But treatment is getting easier. Down the road, gene therapy and other approaches look likely to bring longer-term treatments for patients with the rare bleeding disorder. For now, improvement in treatment lies in the emergence of new, longer-lasting replacements for the blood-clotting factors missing from ...

Wonderful Things series. You can One of the more under-appreciated and ingenious machines evolved by plants is the cavitation catapult of . If that sounds exciting and mysterious, that’s because it is. This is a leptosporangium, where the fern makes its reproductive cells called spores: ONF Fig 02 – Sporangium of Polypodium vulgare” by – Our Native Ferns and their Allies Edition 6, 1900. Licensed under Public Domain via . You’ll notice this one has been broken open and some of the spores formed inside have fallen out. Note also the little striated ring around the upper right, called the “annulus”. It gives the spore capsules the appearance of wearing a . The bottom of this structure is attached to the underside of a fern frond, and it is usually found in a cluster of dozens just like it. Here’s the way those clusters look on the underside of one fern: Fern spores P1180804“. Licensed under via . If you are a stationary being such as a plant or a fungus, it’s in your best ...

AirAsia Flight QZ8501's steep climb before it crashed possibly pushed it beyond the Airbus A320's limits, said a source familiar with the probe's initial findings December 31, 2014 | By Siva Govindasamy SURABAYA, Indonesia, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Radar data being examined by investigators appeared to show that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 made an "unbelievably" steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the Airbus A320's limits, said a source familiar with the probe's initial findings. The data was transmitted before the aircraft disappeared from the screens of air traffic controllers in Jakarta on Sunday, added the source, who declined to be identified. "So far, the numbers taken by the radar are unbelievably high. This rate of climb is very high, too high. It appears to be beyond the performance envelope of the aircraft," he said. The source added that the data on which those assumptions had been made were incomplete. Colleagues and fr...

See Inside Winegrowers are trying to preserve the flavor of your favorite reds and whites as climate change alters the compounds in grapes By It was a hot day in the vineyard, and I was covered in dust, sweat and sticky juice from the grapes I had been collecting for my research on how grape biochemistry is affected by light and temperature. Suddenly, I saw something that made me stop short. Tucked in one corner of this 6.5-acre plot in Carneros, in California's fabled Sonoma Valley, with row after neat row of Pinot Noir grapes, were a handful of alien vines. I had studied the arcane art of ampelography—the practice of identifying grapevines by the shape of their leaves and clusters, as part of my graduate training in viticulture—so I took an educated guess at what they were: the red varieties Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Syrah and Malbec, plus a white, Sauvignon Blanc. The next time I saw Ned Hill, an old friend from high school in nearby Napa who now managed some of the finest ...

Of studies presented at conferences, those that found a cognitive benefit to bilingualism were almost twice as likely to get published in journals as were studies finding no benefit. Karen Hopkin reports. December 30, 2014 | | Over the past 10 years, many scientific papers have shown that speaking more than one language can convey some cognitive rewards. For example, bilingualism seems to boost the brain’s ability to focus, , and . But a few papers show no such advantages.Now a study finds that research that challenges a bilingual benefit is less likely to be published than studies that find one. This party pooping, or fiesta-foiling, finding is in the journal . [Angela de Bruin, Barbara Treccani and Sergio Della Sala, Researchers compared studies presented at conferences to those actually accepted for publication. Of the 104 meeting abstracts they examined, about half supported a bilingual advantage and half challenged or failed to find one.But when it came to publication, 63 per...

Magnetic anomolies in rocks indicate that lightning may be a major player in weathering mountains. Julia Rosen reports. December 30, 2014 | | Rocks are pretty tough, but eventually, even the . Geologists usually give the credit to water and ice. But when it comes to smashing summits, a major player may be . Scientists have found evidence for lightning’s role in mangling mountains in the magnetic signatures of rocks, which go haywire when blasted by bolts.“I mean, these magnetic anomalies are huge.” Susan Webb of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. “And so, we don’t expect to see that, not with ice fracturing rocks. We would see that only with lightning fracturing rocks. And the fact that there’s so many tells you that’s a really important mechanism for weathering rocks.”Webb presented her results on December 18th at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. [Susan Webb, Jasper Knight and Stefan Grab, ]As a test case, in the southern Afric...

By Gayatri Suroyo and Adriana Nina Kusuma SURABAYA, Indonesia/JAKARTA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers searching for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday, prompting relatives of those on board watching TV footage to break down in tears. Indonesia AirAsia's Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. The navy said 40 bodies had been recovered. The plane has yet to be found. "My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ8501," airline boss Tony Fernandes tweeted. "On behalf of AirAsia, my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am." The airline said in a statement that it was inviting family members to Surabaya, "where a dedicated team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that all of their needs a...

Colder-than-average temperatures locked large swaths of the U.S. into a deep freeze Tuesday December 30, 2014 | By Mark Guarino CHICAGO (Reuters) - As colder-than-average temperatures locked large swaths of the United States into a deep freeze Tuesday, snow was likely in an unlikely place - Las Vegas. The National Weather Service (NWS) said cold air pressure from the northern High Plains would move south starting Tuesday, producing light snow and sleet over parts of western Texas that will expand into parts of the Southwest Tuesday night into Wednesday. Light rain is expected to develop over parts of Southern California and the desert Southwest on Wednesday. The NWS said Las Vegas temperatures fell below freezing Monday and would continue through Thursday at an average low of 30 degrees. Up to 3 inches of snow was expected by Tuesday night. "Many tourists who come to Las Vegas may be unprepared for the true winter-like conditions this storm could bring with it," the NWS s...

Last spring Laura Murphy, then 28 years old, went to a doctor to find out if a harmless flap of skin she had always had on the back of her neck was caused by a genetic mutation. Once upon a time, maybe five years ago, physicians would have focused on just that one question. But today doctors tend to run tests that pick up mutations underlying a range of hereditary conditions. Murphy learned not only that a genetic defect was indeed responsible for the flap but also that she had another inherited genetic mutation. This one predisposed her to long QT syndrome, a condition that dramatically increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. In people with the syndrome, anything that startles them—say, a scary movie or an alarm clock waking them from a deep slumber—might kill by causing the heart to beat completely erratically. Doctors call this second, unexpected result an “incidental finding” because it emerged during a test primarily meant to look for something else. The finding was not accide...

When antibiotics first became available, farmers used them indiscriminately—dribbling streptomycin into chicken feed to boost growth and doling out low doses to fatten pigs. Now scientists know that the overuse of antibiotics in livestock can foster drug-resistant bacteria that are dangerous to human health. Amid debates over what kinds of restrictions should be put in place, figuring out how antibiotic-resistant bacteria evolve and make their way to humans remains an area of intense interest. Jo Handelsman is tracing one such pathway that, as she puts it, travels from “barn to table.” Handelsman, a microbiologist who is now associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, looked into dairy cows, which are often treated with antibiotics and produce manure that farmers use on their crops. In addition to nutrients, that fragrant fertilizer may harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria—a problem because the microbes can come into contact with plants th...

NASA has launched its most ambitious scientific balloon ever. On December 28 at 21:16 London time, technicians inflated and released a 532,000-cubic-metre aerostatic balloon from near McMurdo Station in Antarctica. It is the biggest test yet of a 'super-pressure' design that enables a balloon to stay aloft much longer than a conventional scientific balloon. If all continues smoothly, experts expect the flight to last for 100 days or longer. The current record for the longest NASA scientific ballooning flight is 55 days, using a traditional balloon. The record for a super-pressure balloon is just a day shorter, at 54 days. More time aloft equals more science. The new super-pressure balloon is carrying a γ-ray telescope to hunt for high-energy photons streaming from the cosmos. Known as the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), it can detect where in the sky these γ rays are coming from, and thus begin to unravel various astronomical mysteries. COSI is the first science payload...

Across the globe, many people and institutions suffered large costs from the 2008 financial meltdown. Among the victims is the financial sector itself—whose reputation has been questioned after scandals involving the manipulation of interest rates and fraudulent deals. In trying to make sense of the crisis, some have pointed the fingers to individual bankers and banks, others to institutional pressures. But new research suggests that one important cause may reside elsewhere: in the banking culture itself. A found that the financial sector’s culture encourages dishonesty. This is an important finding, as it suggests that good conduct starts with having the right culture. Finance CEOs and upper management need to change cultural norms, so that they can model good behavior at all levels of banks and assure that performance incentives don’t inadvertently reward dishonesty. But what, you may be wondering, is unique about banking culture? The fact that there is a lot of focus on money and n...

By Fergus Jensen JAKARTA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Countries around Asia on Tuesday stepped up the search for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that is presumed to have crashed in shallow waters off the Indonesian coast, with Washington also sending a warship to help find the missing jet. Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, told local television the search area between the islands of Sumatra and Borneo would be expanded. Authorities would also begin scouring nearby islands as well as coastal land on Indonesia's side of Borneo. So far the focus of the search has been the Java Sea. There have been no confirmed signs of wreckage from the Airbus A320-200 operated by Indonesia AirAsia, which disappeared in poor weather on Sunday morning during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. The missing plane, which was carrying mainly Indonesians, could be at the bottom of the sea, Soelistyo said on Monday. The Java Sea is relatively shallow, maki...

The multinational search now is focused on the Java Sea, but authorities also now are searching coastal land -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

People lacking reliable sources of food and medicine are more likely to have poor control over their diabetes -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

We all know someone who is not as smart as we are—and someone who is smarter. At the same time, we all know people who are better or worse than we are in a particular area or task, say, remembering facts or performing rapid mental math calculations. These variations in abilities and talents presumably arise from differences among our brains, and many studies have linked certain very specific tasks with cerebral activity in localized areas. Answers about how the brain as a whole integrates activity among areas, however, have proved elusive. Just what does a “smart” brain look like? Now, for the first time, intelligence researchers are beginning to put together a bigger picture. Imaging studies are uncovering clues to how neural structure and function give rise to individual differences in intelligence. The results so far are confirming a view many experts have had for decades: not all brains work in the same way. People with the same IQ may solve a problem with equal speed and accuracy,...

Investigators heed lessons learned from downed Malaysian aircraft earlier this year December 29, 2014 | | The hunt is on to find AirAsia Flight 8501, which left Surabaya, Indonesia, en route to Singapore on Sunday and lost contact with air traffic controllers somewhere over the Java Sea. Already, reports have come in of possible oil slicks on the ocean about 100 miles from the last point of contact, and possible wreckage 700 miles away, which seems like a stretch. Experts are expressing caution about even speculating on such reports, given the troubles finding evidence of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board (what happened is still unknown). AirAsia is based in Malaysia, but the missing aircraft, an Airbus A320, belonged to an affiliated Indonesian company, according to the . In an age in which people worry about being under surveillance, it is hard to imagine how an aircraft can suddenly go down without a clear crash location or caus...

Match wits with the Mensa puzzlers -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

July 27, 2012 | Every organism on Earth has an expiration date. For humans, it's around 78 years, but some people make it to 100 or beyond. Scientific American editor Katherine Harmon explains how these outliers outlive the rest of us. Showing 16451 Email this Article X

See Inside Scientists are using exotic technologies to excavate underwater shipwrecks with the same precision as an archaeological dig By Two thousand years ago a storm drove a Roman ship against a sheer rock wall on the north side of the remote Greek island of Antikythera. The boat sank, along with tons of treasure: coins, gold jewelry, dozens of large marble and bronze statues, and an extraordinary, bronze clockwork device now counted as the first analog computer. The wreck lay at the sea bottom, 165 feet down, untouched until 1900, when one day sponge divers came upon it. The divers were equipped with little more than a helmet and a long hose to the surface for air; they struggled just to reach the decayed vessel. One of them died, and two others were paralyzed. *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content

Backed by Google and Mozilla, VR-enabled browsers and gear could soon immerse Web users in 3-D worlds December 29, 2014 | | WEB VR FOR REAL: Gadgets that can take advantage of Web VR include the still-in-beta (via Facebook) and (pictured here). Get ready to take the stage with Paul McCartney. If that’s not your thing, you can test-drive the latest SUV before it's available in showrooms or experience a movie as though you're in the scene. That's been (VR) for years, although stepping into an immersive virtual world has always required expensive stereoscopic head-mounted displays and other specialized equipment.A new, more accessible form of virtual reality delivered via the Web promises to let people experience digital worlds in 3-D using head-mounted displays connected to a variety of browser-enabled devices. Web VR is expected to offer the ability to move you from one immersive experience to another with a click of the mouse, touch of the screen or nod of the head. ...

What makes some tasks harder than others to tackle? It turns out the time allotted for the work matters less than how our mind perceives the deadline. When a deadline feels like it is part of the present—say, falling within the current calendar month—we are more likely to begin the task. In one experiment, researchers asked 100 undergraduates when they would start a data-entry task that they had five days to complete. For some, the hypothetical assignment started April 24 or 25, whereas others got the job April 26 or 27. Although the groups had the same amount of time, the students with a deadline in early May were less willing to begin the task right away, according to the study, which appeared in the . An experiment involving 295 farmers in India had a similar outcome. At a finance lecture, the farmers learned they could earn a monetary benefit if they opened a bank account and saved a certain amount within six months. One group's six-month deadline landed in December, another gr...

Books and recommendations from Scientific American -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Books and recommendations from Scientific American -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Electronic pacemakers time the heartbeats of more than three million people in the U.S. For these patients, surgery is a regular occurrence. A pacemaker's batteries must be swapped out every five to eight years, and the electric leads that connect the device to the heart can wear out, too. In an effort to eliminate the batteries and leads altogether, biomedical engineers at the University of Bern in Switzerland have built a heartbeat-powered pacemaker, assembled from self-winding clockwork technology that is more than two centuries old. Automatic wristwatches, invented in 1777, contain a weighted rotor that turns when a wearer's wrist moves. The rotor winds up a spring, and when the fully coiled spring unwinds, it turns the watch's gears. In modern versions, the gears drive a tiny current-producing generator. Like the jostling of a wrist, a beating heart can also wind a spring, the Swiss team found. The researchers stripped an automatic wristwatch of its time-indicating par...

Electronic pacemakers time the heartbeats of more than three million people in the U.S. For these patients, surgery is a regular occurrence. A pacemaker's batteries must be swapped out every five to eight years, and the electric leads that connect the device to the heart can wear out, too. In an effort to eliminate the batteries and leads altogether, biomedical engineers at the University of Bern in Switzerland have built a heartbeat-powered pacemaker, assembled from self-winding clockwork technology that is more than two centuries old. Automatic wristwatches, invented in 1777, contain a weighted rotor that turns when a wearer's wrist moves. The rotor winds up a spring, and when the fully coiled spring unwinds, it turns the watch's gears. In modern versions, the gears drive a tiny current-producing generator. Like the jostling of a wrist, a beating heart can also wind a spring, the Swiss team found. The researchers stripped an automatic wristwatch of its time-indicating par...

See Inside The video "motion microscope" makes invisible changes visible in people and objects Dec 16, 2014 | | By amplifying color changes in videos, pixel by pixel, researchers have been able to make the imperceptible movements behind such changes obvious to the naked eye. 1. While the lefthand video shows an immobile face, the righthand video shows periodic red flushes, driven by a pulse. 2. Amplified still further, such color changes can highlight a baby's stomach moving as it breathes, a motion that is normally impossible to see. 3. The technique can also show that a construction crane, seemingly still, is actually shaking in the wind. 4. The motion microscope also shows how a pipe vibrates into different shapes when struck by a hammer, a technique that could help engineers detect structural defects.

It seems that a few harmless tweets by Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson are causing quite a stir on the internet. Honest, I don't see this as being a big deal. I don't even find it mildly offensive and I wish those people who are criticizing him for it would explain what exactly it is that they don't like. After all, it appears that his words actually meant something for them to either follow him, or take the time to respond. Otherwise, why bother or give a hoot about what he has to say? There are more offensive things being said and done against Christianity, especially at this time of the year. Picking a fight based on a bunch of FACTS (yes, look closely, he is simply stating FACTS) being presented in a rather cheeky way is a freaking waste of time! So get a GRIP, people! Zz.

See Inside Vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on this seminal question that has perplexed philosophers for millenia Dec 16, 2014 | | Is Nahmias right and the impression that many of us have is correct: We have the free will to choose one course of action over another. Or are you in the opposite camp? More In This Article Philosopher Eddy Nahmias from Georgia State University in support of the idea that free will exists. Our ability to choose left versus right, he thinks, prevails—even when, unbeknownst to all of us, our brains sometimes appear to be grinding away behind the scenes immediately before we actually take a step or utter the first word of a sentence. Some other philosophers and neuroscientists disagree with Nahmias’s interpretation, however. They point to the same studies that suggest unconscious processes drive our every action—and then conclude free will is nothing more than an illusion. Whether or not free will actually exists has all sorts of moral and legal consequences: “My ...

Whether you want to conquer bad habits or build a healthier routine, you can learn how to pick and stick to any goal -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

THINKING ABOUT THINKING The Power of Reflection,” by Stephen M. Fleming]. In reflecting on it, considering that metacognition is probably formed in large part with the help of external feedback, it occurs to me that for the past several decades, vast swaths of Americans have most likely had their metacognition impaired by unconditional positive reinforcement (for instance, unearned positive feedback or grade inflation), lack of punishment and drug abuse. I have noticed that in mainstream American society many people have undue levels of confidence, which perhaps can be explained by impaired metacognition. This phenomenon is important because in matters such as hiring and mating we depend in no small part on one another's metacognition. Overconfidence or underconfidence can have direct consequences in many contexts, such as the above, and indirect consequences in many others downstream, such as the economy, unemployment, social discord, health and evolution. JORY MELTZER Another ver...

See Inside Books and recommendations from Dec 16, 2014 | Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space through Time Abrams, 2014 ($50) Long before Hubble Space Telescope photographs wowed us with their beauty, other images of the cosmos awed us as well. This oversized art book samples humanity's attempts to depict the heavens throughout history. Some works are scientific; others are religious or purely artistic. Examples include modern supercomputer simulations of a sunspot, a 16th-century French painting of a solar eclipse and a bronze-and-gold image from Germany of the Pleiades star cluster dating to 2000–1600 b.c.—possibly the oldest known graphic depiction of celestial objects. Photographer and writer Benson gathers around 300 pictures in this collection, which illustrates both how much our knowledge of astronomy has progressed and how timeless the human fascination with celestial images is.

Can’t believe so-and-so said that in front of everyone? Is it time for a break from members of your own species? The dogs are here to help. 2014 was a big year for canine science, although that’s not entirely true. Every year, particularly since the , has been a ‘big year’ for canine science — a booming interdisciplinary field exploring who dogs are, where they came from, and their cognitive and emotional lives. Here are 28 of my favorite dog science pieces of 2014. A few themes stand out, and I hope they carry into 2015: Our bond with dogs is in our hearts, heads, and obituaries. Pay attention to dog welfare, whether it’s fear, appearances, or the beloved ‘guilty look.’ When asked, dogs choose the journey, not just the treat at the end. There’s a good case for banning breed bans. Sadly, isn’t up on the latest research. Not all dog professionals (or dog products) are created equal. Expert opinions are informed. Dogs are not only phat, they are increasingly fat. Better to be j...

See Inside The agency’s proposed human trip to a space rock has a bumpy road ahead Dec 16, 2014 | | The Obama administration wants to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. Of course, such a mission requires a lot of advance engineering, and as a first step, nasa plans to send astronauts to a small asteroid that would be brought into a stable orbit around the moon. To achieve that mechanical feat, a solar-powered robotic probe is being designed to capture a space rock and slowly push it into place. A target asteroid has yet to be announced, and the robotic space tug has yet to be built, but the parties involved hope to have the rock relocated to the moon's vicinity as soon as 2021. nasa calls this concept the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and is marshaling resources across the entire agency to support it. Michele Gates, the agency's program director for ARM, says that its advanced propulsion technology and crew activities would give nasa the capability and experience needed to s...