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New Book Explores Noah’s Flood; Says Bible and Science Can Get Along

By Guest PostAugust 14, 2012Culture, Sciencebiblical book, catastrophic deluge, christians, creationism, dam in montana, david montgomery, eastern washington, false dichotomy, galileo galilei, genesis, geological evidence, geological processes, geologist, geomorphologist, glacial lake, global flood, grand canyon, landscape, mesopotamia, mesopotamian stories, missoula, mountaintop, native american, nicolas steno, noah, noahs flood, pacific ocean, regional flood, religious belief, rocks dont lie, roman catholic, scientific reason, st augustine, tibetan plateau, topography, tsangpo river

“I doubt the historic truth about Noah’s Flood will ever be known with certainty. And I don’t think it really matters. The discoveries of science have revealed the world and our universe to be far more spectacular than could have been imagined by Mesopotamian minds. To still see the world through their eyes is to minimize the wonder of creation.”

David Montgomery, “The Rocks Don’t Lie”

David Montgomery is a geomorphologist, a geologist who studies changes to topography over time and how geological processes shape landscapes. He has seen firsthand evidence of how the forces that have shaped Earth run counter to some significant religious beliefs.

But the idea that scientific reason and religious faith are somehow at odds with each other, he said, “is, in my view, a false dichotomy.” (more…)

Male Sandpipers That Sleep Less Have More Sex

By Guest PostAugust 14, 2012Nature, Scienceamanda watson, arctic circle, electroencephalogram, electromyogram datalogger, female, Germany, hypothesis, male sandpipers, mating, mating season, max planck institute, more sex, offspring, seewiesen, sleep deprivation, sleep less, stress

A study conducted by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany has shown that the male members of a sandpiper population who spend less time sleeping are more successful at mating with females and have more offspring.

The sandpiper mating season takes place during the summer in the Arctic Circle, when the sun practically never goes down. Males of the species compete to impress females by fighting with each other, defending territory, and flying over the females while making a hooting sound. (more…)

Why Do Organisms Build Tissues They Seemingly Never Use?

By Guest PostAugust 12, 2012Sciencebeacon center, charles ofria, computational evolution, computer program, cornell university, Environment, evolution, evolutionary reason, jeff clune, michigan state university, mutate, mutation, organism, richard lenski, robert pennock, skyscraper, tissue

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Why, after millions of years of evolution, do organisms build structures that seemingly serve no purpose?

A study conducted at Michigan State University and published in the current issue of The American Naturalist investigates the evolutionary reasons why organisms go through developmental stages that appear unnecessary.

“Many animals build tissues and structures they don’t appear to use, and then they disappear,” said Jeff Clune, lead author and former doctoral student at MSU’s BEACON Center of Evolution in Action. “It’s comparable to building a roller coaster, razing it and building a skyscraper on the same ground. Why not just skip ahead to building the skyscraper?” (more…)

New Phenomenon in Nanodisk Magnetic Vortices

By Guest PostAugust 12, 2012Sciencemagnetic nanodisk, magnetic vortices, mesoscale phenomena, mesoscale science, nanodisks, nanoscale behavior

Berkeley Lab Researchers Take a Mesocale Look at Magnetic Vortex Formations

The phenomenon in ferromagnetic nanodisks of magnetic vortices – hurricanes of magnetism only a few atoms across – has generated intense interest in the high-tech community because of the potential application of these vortices in non-volatile Random Access Memory (RAM) data storage systems. New findings from scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) indicate that the road to magnetic vortex RAM might be more difficult to navigate than previously supposed, but there might be unexpected rewards as well. (more…)

Crowd Funding on Campus: UW Scientists Raise Money for Research Online

By Guest PostAugust 11, 2012Sciencecrowd funding, publicly funded science, research online, research project, scifund campaign

When Rachel Aronson travels this month to Alaska, she and a local research assistant will interview people who are in danger of being displaced by climate change. She will also send about 100 postcards to her funders. (more…)

UCLA Scientist Discovers Plate Tectonics on Mars

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2012Sciencean yin, california, canyons, context camera, dead sea, death valley, deformation, egg shell, fault motion, fault system, geological phenomenon, google mars, grand canyon, high resolution, himalayas, hirise, lithosphere, mariner valleys, mars, mola, NASA, planetary geologist, plate tectonics, reconnaissance orbiter, san andreas fault, science team, surface of mars, themis, tibet, ucla, valles marineris

For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a UCLA scientist has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet’s surface, also exists on Mars.

“Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics began on Earth,” said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences and the sole author of the new research. (more…)

Scientists Define New Limits of Microbial Life in Undersea Volcanoes

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2012Environment, Scienceaxial volcano, biogeochemical cycle, biological, biosphere, bruce strickrott, carbon dioxide, chemical, chemical factor, computer model, david butterfield, david garrison, deep ocean, earth, endeavour segment, fluid, formation, geochemical fluid, giraffe, growth rate, helene ver eecke, hydrogen, hydrogen threshold, hydrothermal fluid, hydrothermal vent, hyperthermophiles, hyperthermophilic, hyperthermophilic methanogens, james holden, julie huber, marine sediments, marvin lilley, metabolic process, methane, methane exhaling microbes, methanogen ecosystem, methanogenic, microbial composition, microbial life, microbiologist, natural gas, ocean surface, penguin, species, submarine alvin, subsurface microorganism, undersea volcanoes

A third of Earth’s organisms live in rocks and sediments, but their lives have been a mystery

By some estimates, a third of Earth’s organisms live in our planet’s rocks and sediments, yet their lives are almost a complete mystery.

This week, the work of microbiologist James Holden of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and colleagues shines a light into this dark world.

In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they report the first detailed data on methane-exhaling microbes that live deep in the cracks of hot undersea volcanoes. (more…)

Chemists Advance Clear Conductive Films

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Sciencebisacetylacetonatedichloride, brown university, chemist, conductive films, conductivity, conductivity performance, cross section, david paine, electron microscopy, guanglai li, indium acetylacetonate, indium tin oxide, ito, ito crystals, jonghun lee, melissa petruska, nanocrystal solution, polyimide, shouheng sun, solar cells, spinning, sunghwan lee

Thin, conductive films are useful in displays and solar cells. A new solution-based chemistry developed at Brown University for making indium tin oxide films could allow engineers to employ a much simpler and cheaper manufacturing process.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a touch-screen display or a solar panel, any conductive overlay had better be clear. Engineers employ transparent thin films of indium tin oxide (ITO) for the job, but a high-tech material’s properties are only half its resume. They must also be as cheap and easy to manufacture as possible. In a new study, researchers from Brown University and ATMI Inc. report the best-ever transparency and conductivity performance for an ITO made using a chemical solution, which is potentially the facile, low-cost method manufacturers want.

“Our technology is already at the performance level for application in resistive touch screens,” said Jonghun Lee, a Brown chemistry graduate student and lead author of the paper posted online Aug. 1 by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (more…)

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