Beyond H2O -Creating New Types of Water

Scientists are arguing about two new types of water, and we don’t mean Dasani or Perrier – we’re talking about entirely new phases like “liquid” and “solid.”  Which proves that researchers get to fight about far better things than regular humans.

Simulations show two new types of supercooled water existing below minus seventy five degrees Celsius (around two hundred Kelvin), and if you just pointed out that water freezes before that then you aren’t quite the smartass as you think you are.  Changing the pressure can change the phase transition points of water (for example, boiling water can be safely drunk at the top of Mount Everest), and applying large pressures to water can prevent it freezing – and perhaps lead to something else.

The key is the hydrogen bonds of water: H20 contains two hydrogen atoms, which we sincerely hope isn’t news to you, but the hydrogen atoms are also attracted to oxygen atoms of other molecules – leading to a constant creation and destruction of weak hydrogen bonds between the molecules in a liquid (it’s also this weak attraction that causes DNA to twist around itself in a helical shape!)  Under extreme conditions, simulations show these hydrogen bonds radically rearranging: either in an open network, creating a Low Density Liquid, or sacrificing some of themselves to crush the water molecules together closer, creating a High Density Liquid.

Now a team of Indian and Italian scientists say they’ve seen the supercool fluids.  The problem is that it’s extremely hard to make water change this way and still get in to look at it.  In these experiments, the researchers tagged the liquid with an organic probe molecule – so they can’t actually see the water (as it’s in a tiny region crushed between super-cold crystals of ice) but the probe.  Their analysis of the probe’s motion matches predictions of the new fluids’ properties, but not everyone is convinced.  Some say there may be a smooth transition rather than two distinct states, while others claim the odd observations are due to impurities instead of supercooled states.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/06/new-types-of-waterscientists-are-arguing-about-two-new-types-of-water-and-we-dont-mean-dasani-or-perrier—were-talking-abou.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090623/full/news.2009.592.html?s=news_rss

Are Planets “Living Super-Organisms”?

Japan’s Maruyama Shigenori, one of the world’s leading geophysicists, is working on a global formula for a new field of study that would include dozens of disciplines collaborating to produce an overall picture of the Earth. As he connects the links from astronomy to life sciences, an outline emerges of an all-encompassing image of entire planets which appear as living super-organisms.

Shigenori believes that expanding the study of life sciences to the core of our world and the depths of outer space will help us find distant relatives of our own Earth — planets that could also sustain life.

 

Maruyama is creating a new institute called the Center for Bio-Earth Planetology will be launched in 2009 and fully dedicated to creating a new conception of life in space.He wants to find out if the continents will merge again in 250 million years to form a single super-continent; how meteorites change the chemical composition of the Earth; and what the connection is between the temperature of a planet and its magnetic field, which protects plants and animals from being bombarded with cosmic radiation, which in turn influences the rate of mutations and thus the development of new forms of life.

Maruyama is also provoking controversy in the with his new  theory on the lifecycle of the Earth’s crust.

To explain why contintental plates drift on the surface of the Earth’s molten mantle, Maruyama argues that continents actually have life cycles. Old, cold plates on continental fringes sink to “plate graveyards” deep in the Earth’s mantle, and then rise again, creating volcanoes fueled by three-dimensional convection movements deep below the surface.

Maruyama is taking the ideas of continental-drift pioneer Alfred Wegener to a new level. Wegener was a German explorer and meteorologist who believed back in 1912 that the continents roamed about on the surface of the Earth — an idea that was ridiculed by even his most supportive research colleagues as a “delirious vision” and “the wonderful dream of a great poet.” It wasn’t until the 1960s that studies of the ocean floor finally provided irrefutable proof that Wegener had been right after all.

Today, we all know that the continents are enormous plates that drift on the Earth’s red-hot mantle like icebergs on the ocean. Yet to this day, the hypothesis still lacks a logical and convincing foundation. Nobody has been able to explain the actual mechanics behind the motor that drives the drifting and breaking-up of the continental plates.

The inner reaches of the Earth remain shrouded in mystery. Even the surface of has been explored more extensively. Because deep drilling comes to a halt after a maximum of 12 kilometers, the remaining 6,300 kilometers to the center of the Earth remain inaccessible.

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Maruyama gave the answer: “The continental drift that we observe on the surface of the Earth has its counterpart in the Earth’s mantle. Old, cold plates are pushed down into the Earth’s mantle on the continental edges,” he explains. “At this point they collect large amounts of iron. You can imagine it as something similar to water condensation.”

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/06/are-planets-biologicalorganisms-worlds-leading-expert-says-yes.html

Obesity Clues From Research On How Burrowing Frogs Survive Years Without Food

This is the burrowing frog (Cyclorana alboguttata) used as model organism in the study. (Credit: Sara M. Kayes)

Many species of animals go through a period of torpor to conserve energy when resources are scarce. But when it comes to switching to energy-saving mode, the champion by far among vertebrates is the burrowing frog (Cyclorana alboguttata), which can survive for several years buried in the mud in the absence of any food or water.

How do they accomplish this feat? A team of scientists at the University of Queensland have discovered that the metabolism of their cells changes radically during the dormancy period allowing the frogs to maximise the use of their limited energy resources without ever running on empty.

This discovery could prove to have important medical applications in the long term. “It could potentially be useful in the treatment of energy-related disorders such as obesity”, explains Ms. Sara Kayes who will present her findings at the Society of Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow on the 29th June 2009.

When the operation efficiency of the mitochondria, the tiny “power plants” of the cell, was measured during the dormancy period, it was found to be significantly higher compared to that observed in active animals. This trick , known as mitochondrial coupling, allows these frogs to be extremely efficient in the use of the limited energy stores they have by increasing the total amount of energy obtained per unit consumed, allowing them to easily outperform other species whose energy production efficiency remains essentially the same even when they happen to be inactive for extended periods.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090629081133.htm

Flu Dynasty: Influenza Virus In 1918 And Today

Red arrows indicate human influenza virus lineages, black arrows swine influenza virus lineages, and gray arrows exportation of one or more genes from the avian influenza A virus gene pool. Horizontal bars shown inside the virus represent each of the eight virus genes, abbreviated PB2, PB1, PA, HA, NP, NA, M and NS. (Credit: NIAID)

The influenza virus that wreaked worldwide havoc in 1918-1919 founded a viral dynasty that persists to this day, according to scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

In an article published online on June 29 by the New England Journal of Medicine, authors Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Jeffery K. Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., and David M. Morens, M.D., argue that we have lived in an influenza pandemic era since 1918, and they describe how the novel 2009 H1N1 virus now circling the globe is yet another manifestation of this enduring viral family.

“The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic was a defining event in the history of public health,” says NIAID Director Dr. Fauci. “The legacy of that pandemic lives on in many ways, including the fact that the descendents of the 1918 virus have continued to circulate for nine decades.”

Influenza viruses have eight genes, two of which code for virus surface proteins—hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N)—that allow the virus to enter a host cell and spread from cell to cell. There are 16 H subtypes and 9 N subtypes, and, therefore, 144 possible HN combinations. However, only three (H1N1, H2N2 and H3N2) have ever been found in influenza viruses that are fully adapted to infect humans. Other combinations, such as avian influenza H5N1, occasionally infect people, but they are bird viruses, not human viruses.

“The eight influenza genes can be thought of as players on a team: Certain combinations of players may arise through chance and endow the virus with new abilities, such as the ability to infect a new type of host,” says Dr. Morens, Senior Advisor to the NIAID Director. That is likely what happened to spark the 1918 pandemic, he adds. Scientists have shown that the founding virus was an avian-like virus. The virus had a novel set of eight genes and—through still-unknown mechanisms—gained the ability to infect people and spread readily from person to person.

Not only did the 1918 H1N1 virus set off an explosive pandemic in which tens of millions died, during the pandemic the virus was transmitted from humans to pigs, where—as it does in people—it continues to evolve to this day. “Ever since 1918, this tenacious virus has drawn on a bag of evolutionary tricks to survive in one form or another…and to spawn a host of novel progeny viruses with novel gene constellations, through the periodic importation or exportation of viral genes,” write the NIAID authors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090629200643.htm

Sensors for Tracking Home Water Use

Finding the flush: This sensor attaches to a water pipe and wirelessly communicates changes in pressure to a microcontroller that infers the use of specific fixtures. A Bluetooth transmitter streams the data to a personal computer.
Credit: Shwetak Patel

When a cell phone or credit-card bill arrives, each call or purchase is itemized, making it possible to track trends in calling or spending, which is especially helpful if you use a phone plan with limited minutes or are trying to stick to a budget. Within the next few years, household utilities could be itemized as well, allowing residents to track their usage and see which devices utilize the most electricity, water, or gas. New sensor technology that consists of a single device for each utility, which builds a picture of household activity by tracing electrical wiring, plumbing, and gas lines back to specific devices or fixtures, could make this far simpler to implement.

Shwetak Patel, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle, developed the sensors, which plug directly into existing infrastructure in buildings, thereby eliminating the need for an elaborate set of networked sensors throughout a structure. For example, an electrical sensor plugs into a single outlet and monitors characteristic “noise” in electrical lines that are linked to specific devices, such as cell-phone chargers, refrigerators, DVD players, and light switches. And a gas sensor attaches to a gas line and monitors pressure changes that can be correlated to turning on a stove or furnace, for instance.

Now, Patel and his colleagues have developed a pressure sensor that fits around a water pipe. The technology, called Hydrosense, can detect leaks and trace them back to their source, and can recognize characteristic pressure changes that indicate that a specific fixture or appliance is in use.

Patel hopes to incorporate electrical, gas, and water sensors into a unified technology and has cofounded a startup, called Usenso, that he hopes will start offering combined smart meters to utility companies within the next year or so. The goal, says Patel, is to make a “smart home” universally deployable. “I looked at the existing infrastructures,” he says, “and saw that they could be retrofitted.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22947/

Hybrid “Superpredator” Invading California Ponds

A “supersize” hybrid salamander is gulping down smaller amphibians—such as Pacific chorus frogs (F, the frog in its larval stage) and California newts (E, the newt in its larval stage)—in ponds throughout California’s Salinas Valley, a June 2009 study found.  The voracious hybrid (D, the largest variety, and C, the smallest) is a blend of the native California tiger salamander (A, the largest variety, and B, the smallest) and the invasive barred tiger salamander (not pictured).

Mating between the rare California tiger salamander and the introduced barred tiger salamander has created a monster—at least for animals that dwell in the ponds of California’s Salinas River Valley. (See a map of the region.)

The new hybrid “superpredator” grows larger than either of its parent species, and its bigger mouth enables it to suck up a wide variety of amphibian prey, said lead study author Maureen Ryan, of the Center for Population Biology at the University of California, Davis.

Mostly on the menu are smaller pond species, such as the Pacific chorus frog and the California newt—both of which were “dramatically reduced” in population by the hybrid in the experiments.

This may be the case in natural ponds as well, Ryan said.

“[The hybrids] seem to be more voracious and a little more aggressive,” Ryan said. “Just watching their behavior, they’ll go after each other and the other prey.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090629-salamanders-hybrid.html

NEW SPECIES PHOTO: Thumb-Size Bat Found in Lava Tunnel

Caught during a steamy moment in a lava tunnel in 2006, these two apparently mating bats—members of a new species—are each no bigger than a human thumb, scientists reported June 24.

Weighing just 0.2 ounce (5 grams), Aellen’s long-fingered bat was discovered on a volcanic island in Africa’s Comoros chain. DNA analysis later confirmed the bat as a unique species.

Subsequent genetic tests revealed that the bat is also found on the west coast of the island of Madagascar, said study team member Manuel Ruedi, a curator at the Natural History Museum in Geneva, Switzerland.

Since neighboring Madagascar is much older than the Comoros (regional map), the team suspects that the moth-size mammal lived on Madagascar before migrating to the Indian Ocean archipelago in the distant past. (Related: “Hurricanes Blow Away Bats, Spread Genes to New Islands.”)

Bat diversity in both the Comoros and Madagascar has been poorly studied, Ruedi said. But the latest genetic-testing technology makes it easy to distinguish between bat species that can look very similar, he added.

As for the amorous image above, Ruedi said mating bats are a rare catch, “especially when it involves an unknown species!”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090629-bat-moth-thumb-pictures.html

Military Shuts Out Scientists from Infra-Red Signatures on All Meteors Which Hit the Planet

The military has just decided to deny scientists data on incoming meteors in order to protect military secrets.  Anyone who can’t see any problems with this arrangement, well done on never having seen a movie -ever.  Oh, and get Michael Bay on the phone – we’ve got his next plot ready.

The Air Force’s Defense Support Program satellite network scans the globes for infra-red signatures (indicative of missile blasts and nuclear explosions) and incidentally picks up incredibly detailed information on all meteors which hit the planet.  Something the military didn’t think was particularly interesting.  They did at least send the occasional update to the Earth-watching scientific community, scraps of data they didn’t need, but a recent announcement makes it clear that there will be no more.

The most likely reason is an upgrade to the satellite defense network, with the top brass believing that any risk of revealing the capabilities of the new system is unacceptable.  The worst thing is that it isn’t really secrecy that’s stopping the data transfer, but miserliness.  It’s the work of moments to boil out any unwanted information revealed by records of meteor strikes, but with their hundred-billion dollar budget the USAF just doesn’t see the point in hiring someone to do it.  That would be money with absolutely no ability to kill people, after all, and paltry little things like “using the most advanced satellite network in existence to further our understanding of the universe” isn’t going to blow anybody up either.

They’re literally throwing out incredible data because they can’t be bothered to keep it.  This is everything that’s wrong with human ambition right here.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/06/military-shuts-out-scientists-from-infrared-signatures-on-all-meteors-which-hit-the-planet.html

Unlocking Your Inner Fish: Human DNA Traced Back to Marine Origins

Have you ever felt like you’re really a fish?  That you love the water, you want to swim forever, that you should don an artificial tail and eat kelp for the rest of your life?  Then congratulations, you’re crazy.  But by coincidence some of your psycho-cells agree with you, hiding gene expression patterns that date back to the fish and probably beyond.

DNA is the most complicated system you’ll ever use.  Your genes are a huge collection of protein-encoding patterns: some build materials required for organs and tissues, but the vast majority of the genes are designed only to control other genes: it’s like running a PC with Windows Vista just to open Notepad.  Even the simplest task has an enormous set of operating instructions making it possible.

Toronto based Professor Hughes and colleagues have traced thousands of genes across tens of species as far afield as people, poultry and pufferfish.  They found that while the actual genes have evolved beyond (almost) all recognition, as you may notice from your inability to expand to twice your normal size as a panic reaction, the actual profiles of gene expression in critical organs are extremely similar.  You might be building a completely different heart, according to very different instructions, but there are certain steps and stages you must follow whether you’re feathered or froggy.

These similarities appear to be enforced by function, not by how much the genome actually differs from species to species.  These conserved profiles were found across very varied species no matter how much their DNA appeared otherwise similar.  There are simply only so many ways you can alter the heart-construction-procedure without fatally fouling it up.

Creepily, one of the most conserved constructions is the brain – meaning that you might have more mind in common with carp than you expect.  Thanks a lot, nature: the one superhero we’re genetically equipped to be is Aquaman.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/06/have-you-ever-felt-like-youre-really-a-fish-that-you-love-the–water-you-want-to-swim-forever-that-you-should-don-an-artif.html

First Electronic Quantum Processor Created

The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms. (Credit: Blake Johnson/Yale University)

A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms, such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time. Their findings will appear in Nature’s advanced online publication June 28.

“Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and photons,” said Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Norton Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. “But this is the first time they’ve been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor.”

Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits (“quantum bits”). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the “1″ and “0″ or “on” and “off” states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a “superposition” of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power.

For example, imagine having four phone numbers, including one for a friend, but not knowing which number belonged to that friend. You would typically have to try two to three numbers before you dialed the right one. A quantum processor, on the other hand, can find the right number in only one try.

“Instead of having to place a phone call to one number, then another number, you use quantum mechanics to speed up the process,” Schoelkopf said. “It’s like being able to place one phone call that simultaneously tests all four numbers, but only goes through to the right one.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090628171949.htm