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Evolution, Civil War History Entwine in Fossil Find

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2013Sciencebenjamin butler, civil war history, dutch gap, early cretaceous, eudicots, evolution, flowering plant evolution, fossil, fossil beds, fossil leaf fragment, freedmen, geologic deposits, greek word, james river, leo j hickey, nathan jud, North America, oldest flowering plants, paleobotanist, plant evolution, pollen, potomac river region, potomacapnos, potomacapnos apeleutheron, smithsonian institution, steven miller, union army, university of maryland, virginia canal bank

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A fossil leaf fragment collected decades ago on a Virginia canal bank has been identified by a University of Maryland doctoral student as one of North America’s oldest flowering plants, a 115- to 125-million-year-old species new to science. The fossil find, an ancient relative of today’s bleeding hearts, poses a new puzzle in the study of plant evolution: did Earth’s dominant group of flowering plants evolve along with its distinctive pollen? Or did pollen come later?

The find also unearths a forgotten chapter in Civil War history reminiscent of the film “Twelve Years a Slave,” but with a twist. In 1864, Union Army troops forced a group of freed slaves into involuntary labor, digging a canal along the James River at Dutch Gap, Va. The captive men’s shovels exposed the oldest flowering plant fossil beds in North America, where the new plant species was ultimately found. (more…)

Study asks: Is a ‘better world’ possible?

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2013Scienceasia, better world, cohesion, computer modeling, create communities, integration, jennifer watling neal, michigan state university, neighborhoods, policymakers, possible, socially cohesive, sociologist, united kingdom, united states, zachary neal

For years, policymakers have attempted to create communities where a diverse group of residents not only live close to one other but also interact freely – in other words, neighborhoods that are both integrated and socially cohesive.

But that might be a lost cause, a Michigan State University sociologist argues in a new study. (more…)

‘Spooky action’ builds a wormhole between ‘entangled’ particles

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2013Sciencealbert einstein, andreas karch, black holes, classical geometry, entangled particles, gravitational pull, kristan jensen, new york, opposite spin, particle behavior, quantum entanglement, quantum mechanics, quantum systems, specific spin, spooky action, stony brook university, university of washington, wormhole

Quantum entanglement, a perplexing phenomenon of quantum mechanics that Albert Einstein once referred to as “spooky action at a distance,” could be even spookier than Einstein perceived.

Physicists at the University of Washington and Stony Brook University in New York believe the phenomenon might be intrinsically linked with wormholes, hypothetical features of space-time that in popular science fiction can provide a much-faster-than-light shortcut from one part of the universe to another. (more…)

In conversation with: Hee Oh, professor of mathematics

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2013Scienceabsolute abstraction, beautiful structure, brown, cal tech, christian faith, college in korea, complex problem, dramatic moment, false sense, female students, geometry, god, hee oh, homogeneous space, in conversation with, joy of walking, lots of symmetries, mathematics problem, number theory, princeton, professor of mathematics, rigidity phenomenon, superiority

Hee Oh joined Yale’s math department this year from Brown. Here she talks about absolute abstraction, the joy of walking — and missing math during her years as a social activist.

You received your doctorate in mathematics from Yale in 1997, then served on the faculties of Princeton, Cal Tech, and Brown, among others. What drew you back to Yale?

The math department at Yale has been well known for its strength in Lie groups, geometry, and dynamics for a long time. It was an honor and in itself a big draw for me to be asked to participate in continuing this tradition. In the end, however, I felt in my Christian faith that God was leading me this way, and I made the final decision accordingly. (more…)

Astronomers discover first noble gas molecules in space

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2013Sciencecrab nebula, infrared spectra, molecule, noble gas, supernova remnant

Noble gas molecules have been detected in space for the first time in the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant, by astronomers at UCL. (more…)

Hubble Sees Evidence of Water Vapor at Jupiter Moon

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Scienceauroral glow, europa, europa plumes, hubble measurements, jupiter moon, magnetic field lines, polar region, water vapor

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has observed water vapor above the frigid south polar region of Jupiter’s moon Europa, providing the first strong evidence of water plumes erupting off the moon’s surface. (more…)

Ancient crater may be clue to Moon’s mantle

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Scienceaitken basin, ancient crater, brown university, carle pieters, chandrayaan, dan moriarty, giant spa impact, India, laser program, lower crust, lunar orbiter, lunar science institute, mantle, mantle materials, mapper data, mineralogical surprises, mineralogy, moon, moon mineralogy, NASA, nlsi, peter isaacson, solar system, south pole, spa basin, spa subsurface, subsurface, university of hawaii, upper

A massive impact on the Moon about 4 billion years ago left a 2,500-mile crater, among the largest known craters in the solar system. Smaller subsequent impacts left craters within that crater. Comparing the spectra of light reflected from the peaks of those craters may yield clues to the composition of the Moon’s lower crust and mantle — and would have implications for models of how the Moon formed.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University and the University of Hawaii have found some mineralogical surprises in the Moon’s largest impact crater. (more…)

Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa’s Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Scienceaustin, biological life, britney schmidt, chaos terrains, circulation patterns, current patterns model, europa, galileo spacecraft, georgia institute, icy shell, juice mission, jupiter, krista soderlund, magnetometer readings, max planck institute, model, moon europa, ocean currents, potential habitats, solar system, solar system research, subsurface ocean, Technology, three dimensional convection, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have shown that the subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may have deep currents and circulation patterns with heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the planetary bodies in our solar system most likely to have conditions that could sustain life, an idea reinforced by magnetometer readings from the Galileo spacecraft detecting signs of a salty, global ocean below the moon’s icy shell. (more…)

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