Science – Page 268 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Climate and Drought Lessons from Ancient Egypt

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Culture, Environment, Scienceachilles heel, ancient egypt, babylonian, benjamin horton, charcoal, christopher bernhardt, climate, climate change, drought, egypt, egyptian history, evolution of societies, geological record, giza, great pyramid, human history, jean daniel stanley, marcia mcnutt, microscopic charcoal, middle east, modern iraq, nile basin vegetation, nile delta, nile delta sediment, old kingdom, pollen, pyramid building time, spinx, syrian kingdom, ugarit kingdom, university of pennsylvania, uruk kingdom

Using Fossil Pollen to Augment Historical Records

Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time.

“Humans have a long history of having to deal with climate change,” said Christopher Bernhardt, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey. “Along with other research, this study geologically reveals that the evolution of societies is sometimes tied to climate variability at all scales – whether decadal or millennial.” (more…)

NSF’s South Pole Telescope Discovers a Galaxy Cluster Creating Stars at a Record Pace

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceantarctic program, Antarctica, big bang, black hole, blanco 4 meter, bradford benson, chandra, Chile, cmb, cosmic microwave background, earth, energy, galaxy cluster, hubble fellow, john carlstrom, light year, magellan telescope, michael mcdonald, NASA, national science foundation, nsf, phoenix cluster, radiation, radio telescope, south pole telescope, spt, spt clj2344-4243, sunyaev zeldovich, sz effect, university of chicago, xray observatory

Researchers say Phoenix Cluster activity may cause scientists to rethink how galaxies evolve

A National Science Foundation-funded radio telescope in Antarctica has found an extraordinary galaxy cluster that may force astronomers to rethink how galaxy clusters and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve.

The galaxy cluster was discovered some 5.7 billion light years from Earth by the 10-meter wide South Pole Telescope (SPT) located at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, which is funded by NSF’s Office of Polar Programs. (more…)

Impulsive Micromanagers Help Plants to Adapt, Survive

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceatmospheric co2, climate, concentration, drought, environmental change, environmental factor, global change, jay lennon, jen lau, plant, precipitation pattern, soil microbe, warmer temperature

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Soil microbes are impulsive. So much so that they help plants face the challenges of a rapidly changing climate.

Jen Lau and Jay Lennon, Michigan State University biologists, studied how plants and microbes work together to help plants survive the effects of global changes, such as increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. The results, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that microbes in the ground not only interact with plants, but they also prompt them to respond to environmental changes.

“We found that these changes in the plants happen primarily because of what global changes do to the belowground microbes rather than the plant itself,” said Lau, who works at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station. “Drought stress affects microbes, and they, in turn, drive plants to flower earlier and help plants grow and reproduce when faced with drought.” (more…)

Meditation Reduces Loneliness

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer's disease, brain, chronic inflammation, crp, david creswell, depression, expression, heart disease, helen lavretsky, immune system, infection, inflammation, inflammatory gene, loneliness, mbsr, meditation, meditative technique, michael irwin, mindfulness, natural component, nf kb, pro inflammatory gene, protein marker, risk, tai chi, yoga

UCLA study also finds that mindfulness technique benefits immune system

Many elderly people spend their last years alone. Spouses pass and children scatter. But being lonely is much more than a silent house and a lack of companionship. Over time, loneliness not only takes a toll on the psyche but can have a serious physical impact as well.

Feeling lonely has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and even premature death. Developing effective treatments to reduce loneliness in older adults is essential, but previous treatment efforts have had limited success. (more…)

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…)

Category Archives: Science