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For Longer-Life, Disease-Free Roses, NC State Researchers Insert Celery Gene

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2011Sciencealcohol, botrytis, bryon sosinski, celery, Colombia, disease, ecuador, environmental factors, fungal pathogens, gene, george allen, grocery stores, john dole, john williamson, lettuce, mannitol, petal blight, plant diseases, post harvest diseases, rose, rose plants, valentine day, vase life

A rose by any other name would smell … like celery?

North Carolina State University research intended to extend the “vase life” of roses inserts a gene from celery inside rose plants to help fight off botrytis, or petal blight, one of the rose’s major post-harvest diseases.

Some fungal pathogens, the bad guys that infect plants, produce a sugar alcohol called mannitol that interferes with the plant’s ability to block disease like petal blight, which produces wilty, mushy petals – an effect similar to what happens to lettuce when it’s been in the crisper too long. (more…)

Looking at a Tough Hill to Climb? Depends on Your Point of View

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2011Scienceangle of stairs, bottom of the hill, climbing, constancy of slant perception, dennis shaffer, descending hills, fatigue, fear of falling, inclines, judgment, mariagrace flint, overestimates, people, slope of the escalator, slope of the steps, steepness of slopes

COLUMBUS, Ohio — People tend to overestimate the steepness of slopes – and psychologists studying the phenomenon have made a discovery that refutes common ideas about how we perceive inclines in general.

For more than a decade, researchers thought that our judgment was biased by our fatigue or fear of falling, explained Dennis Shaffer, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus. We perceive climbing or descending hills as difficult or dangerous, so when we look at an incline, our view is clouded by the expected physical exertion or danger of traversing it. (more…)

New View of Family Life in the North American Nebula

By Guest PostFebruary 10, 2011Sciencecontamination, cosmic community, earth, gulf of mexico, infrared view, light years, luisa rebull, micron, NASA, north american nebula, spitzer image, spitzer space telescope, stars, toddler stars, wavelength, young stars, zodiacal dust

Pasadena, Calif. — Stars at all stages of development, from dusty little tots to young adults, are on display in a new image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

This cosmic community is called the North American nebula. In visible light, the region resembles the North American continent, with the most striking resemblance being the Gulf of Mexico. But in Spitzer’s infrared view, the continent disappears. Instead, a swirling landscape of dust and young stars comes into view.

“One of the things that makes me so excited about this image is how different it is from the visible image, and how much more we can see in the infrared than in the visible,” said Luisa Rebull of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. Rebull is lead author of a paper about the observations, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. “The Spitzer image reveals a wealth of detail about the dust and the young stars here.” (more…)

Language May Play Important Role in Learning the Meanings of Numbers

By Guest PostFebruary 10, 2011Scienceformal sign language, homesigners, meanings of numbers, number words, sign language

Research shows “homesigners” unable to comprehend the value of large numbers

New research conducted with deaf people in Nicaragua shows that language may play an important role in learning the meanings of numbers. (more…)

Unexpected Exoskeleton Remnants Found in Paleozoic Fossils

By Guest PostFebruary 9, 2011Sciencearthropods, canada, cenozoic fossils, chitin protein complex, fossils, george cody, horseshoe crabs, low energy x rays, mesozoic fossils, molecular signature, ontario, organic fossil record, paleozoic era, partial bacterial degradation, polysaccharide, protein

Washington, D.C.— Surprising new research shows that, contrary to conventional belief, remains of chitin-protein complex—structural materials containing protein and polysaccharide—are present in abundance in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Previously the oldest molecular signature of chitin-protein complex was discovered in 25 million year old Cenozoic fossils and remnants of structural protein have also been discovered in 80 million-year-old Mesozoic fossils. Carnegie’s George Cody and an international team of scientists discovered relicts of protein-chitin complex in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Their findings, published online by Geology, could have major implications for our understanding of the organic fossil record. (more…)

Quantum Quirk: JILA Scientists Pack Atoms Together to Prevent Collisions in Atomic Clock

By Guest PostFebruary 7, 20111 commentScienceana maria rey, atom cloud, atomic clock, collisions between atoms, energy, energy levels, fermions, jila scientists, jun ye, laser beams, light waves, magnetic fields, microkelvin, neutral atoms, nist, optical tubes, paradox, particles, precision and accuracy, quantum world, strontium atoms, vertical lattice

In a paradox typical of the quantum world, JILA scientists have eliminated collisions between atoms in an atomic clock by packing the atoms closer together. The surprising discovery, described in the Feb. 3 issue of Science Express, can boost the performance of experimental atomic clocks made of thousands or tens of thousands of neutral atoms trapped by intersecting laser beams

JILA is jointly operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder. (more…)

Scientists Find Part of New Zealand’s Submerged “Pink Terraces”

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2011Scienceamy kukulya, autonomous underwater vehicles, auvs, charles blomfield, cornel de ronde, dan fornari, eighth wonder of the world, geothermal system, geothermal systems, gns science, high frequency auv sonars, lake basin, lake rotomahana, maori cultural significance, mt tarawera, new zealand, north island, pink and white terraces, pink terraces, robin littlefield

They were called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Until the late 19^th century, New Zealand’s Pink and White Terraces along Lake Rotomahana on the North Island, attracted tourists from around the world, interested in seeing the beautiful natural formations created by a large geothermal system. But the eruption of Mt. Tarawera on June 10, 1886, buried the terraces in sediment and caused the lake basin to enlarge, engulfing the land where the terraces stood. For more than a century, people have speculated whether any part of the Pink and White Terraces survived the eruption. (more…)

DNA Caught Rock ‘n Rollin’

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2011Sciencedna double helix, dna structural forms, double helix, hoogsteen base pair, molecule of life

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— DNA, that marvelous, twisty molecule of life, has an alter ego, research at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine reveals. (more…)

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