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Weekly Science Picks

Sharon — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 00:03:48 +0000

It’s that time of the week again. Time for some science-y goodness from around the globe!!

NASA Spitzer Telescope celebrates 10 years in space!

Ten years ago the Spitzer Space Telescope was launched about a Delta II rocket from Canaveral, Florida. Spitzer is an infrared telescope and is the fourth of the NASA’s four Great Observatories in space, Hubble, Chandra, Compton and Spitzer.

Precision atomic clock sets new record

The most precise clocks in the world have been built in the US. Two clocks made from ytterbium (serioulsy I’ve not heard of this element before!) and could be used for technological advancements beyond timekeeping, such as navigation systems, magnetic fields and temperature. Apparently the clocks’ ticking rate varies less than two parts in one quintillion, or 10 times better than any other atomic clock. Sounds great! But does it stop me being late for work?

NASA prepares for LADEE launch

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere and determine whether dust is being lofted into the lunar sky. LADEE will help us better understand the moon, and other objects including asteroids and other planetary moons.

Want to boost your testosterone level? Try chopping wood…

A new study by the Institute of Social, Behavioural and Economic Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara has found that chopping wood to clear land and feed the family produces more testosterone in men than competitive activities like sport.

Plankton may spread oyster herpes virus

Plankton may be spreading a herpes-like virus that has been devastating Pacific oyster farms in countries ranging from France, UK, Spain and the US.

Bacteria can cause pain on their own

Bacteria can directly trigger the nerves that sense pain, suggesting that the body’s own immune reaction is not always to blame for the extra tenderness of an infected wound.

Map tracks path of dust plume from Russian Chelyabinsk meteor

Watch this video that shows the dust path left behind the 11,000-metric-ton meteor as it ripped through Earth’s atmosphere on February 15, 2013.

Cite this article:
Harnett S (2013-08-25 00:03:48). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-43/

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Weekly Science Picks

Markus — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:04:02 +0000

After the Perseid meteor shower last weekend, it seems that lots of exciting things have been discussed this week. Here are a few of the things which caught my eye.

The first of my picks is homegrown here on Australian Science, if you’ll pardon the pun. A sustainable food source for space travellers and outposts is one which has a lot of scientists and engineers scratching their chins, as does dealing with waste products. Which makes the prospect of using a form of bacteria to recycle waste and generate a food supply a very interesting one…

Red bacteria as astronaut food

Bacteria offer an attractive ingredient for space food. Quick and easy to grow, exponentially and to large numbers, and can provide the basic nutrients. And it was in search for astronaut space food that another discovery was made.

There’s been a lot of talk this week about the Hyperloop – a high speed transit system conceived by everyone’s favourite space entrepreneur, Elon Musk. I must say, the concept looks quite exciting.

Hyperloop

The design of Hyperloop has been considered from the start with safety in mind. Unlike other modes of transport, Hyperloop is a single system that incorporates the vehicle, propulsion system, energy management, timing, and route. Capsules travel in a carefully controlled and maintained tube environment making the system is immune to wind, ice, fog, and rain. The propulsion system is integrated into the tube and can only accelerate the capsule to speeds that are safe in each section. With human control error and unpredictable weather removed from the system, very few safety concerns remain.

Poor Voyager 1. For a startlingly long time now, we’ve been unsure about whether or not it’s actually left the Solar System and the protective influence of the Sun’s solar wind. In fairness, this is because it’s truly an explorer and, in a manner which would make any Star Trek fan proud, going where no one has gone before. All the same, the most recent buzz is that Voyager 1 may have indeed left the Solar System. In fact, it looks like it did so last year. (Though this study will no doubt remain contentious, there are a few of us who suspected this was the case).

Voyager 1 Spacecraft Left Solar System Last Year, Study Suggests

“It’s a somewhat controversial view, but we think Voyager has finally left the solar system, and is truly beginning its travels through the Milky Way,” lead author Marc Swisdak of the University of Maryland said in a statement.

Interestingly though, some recent archaeological discoveries suggest that, despite the achievements of human technology, the first technology wasn’t created by modern humans at all. The exact nature of our extinct cousins, the neandertals, is shrouded in mystery, but it looks as though the first specialised bone tools ever created on Earth were made by them, and not us homo sapiens.

Neandertals Made the First Specialized Bone Tools in Europe

How widespread this new Neandertal behavior was is a question that remains. The first three found were fragments less than a few centimeters long and might not have been recognized without experience working with later period bone tools. It is not something normally looked for in this time period. “However, when you put these small fragments together and compare them with finds from later sites, the pattern in them is clear,” comments Shannon McPherron. “Then last summer we found a larger, more complete tool that is unmistakably a lissoir like those we find in later, modern human sites or even in leather workshops today.”

I hope everyone has a good week!

Image: A luminous Perseid meteor over the McDonald Observatory, Texas. Credit and copyright: Sergio Garcia Rill/SGR Photography.

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-08-18 19:04:02). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-42/

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The post Weekly Science Picks appeared first on Australian Science.

Mosquito-borne diseases: Fighting fire with fire

Markus — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:14:07 +0000

I have a decidedly “live and let live” approach to life. There are no animals in this world which I harbour any malicious feelings towards, regardless of how many of those animals would think nothing of poisoning, eating, maiming, or otherwise killing me (it’s a tough world out there). No animals, with one exception. I absolutely detest mosquitos – and not irrationally so.

You see, you might not realise it, but mosquitos are actually the most dangerous animal in the world. Yes, seriously. They may not look like much, but every year, mosquitos will spread diseases to 700 million people. That’s 10% of the human population on this planet. Many of the diseases spread by mosquitos are potentially fatal, and mosquitos are responsible for over 2 million deaths every year. Needless to say, some way of curbing the spread of mosquito-borne disease would be a huge success in combating illness worldwide.

Interestingly, an unusual but potentially effective method has been devised by Ary Hoffmann and Michale Turelli at the University of Melbourne. I say unusual, because their method of preventing mosquitos from spreading disease is to actually infect the mosquitos with a disease of their own.

When mosquitos are infected with a type of bacteria called wolbachia, it renders them unable to spread viruses such as dengue fever. Dengue is a particularly nasty disease spread by mosquitos, for which no real treatments or vaccines are available. Around 40,000 people die every year from dengue, with around 2,400 cases reported over the past few years in Northern Australia.

Wolbachia bacteria are actually surprisingly common, existing naturally in around 70% of all insects. The particular strain used in this study was discovered by Hoffmann in 1988, in Australian fruit flies. Nature, it seems, is full of serendipities. In 2011, studies showed a great success. Mosquitos infected with wolbachia cannot spread the dengue virus!

However, there was still a problem to address. Wolbachia also affected the mosquitos eggs, preventing them from hatching. While this may seem, at first, like a good thing in that it may cull the mosquito population, the problem lies in the fact that if the infected mosquitos all die off, the remaining insects will still be quite able to spread disease.

The solution, perhaps even more counterintuitively, involves giving the mosquitos resistance to insecticide. At first glance, this idea may seem unappealing, but it isn’t without merit. In fact it’s quite ingenious. Areas which are particularly prone to mosquito-borne infections tend to use insecticides as a way to control the mosquito populations and curb disease. In these regions, the non-infected mosquitos would be killed off by insecticide, so that the population of mosquitos would adapt. The end result would be a population of mosquitos which cannot spread the dengue virus.

Similarly, the insecticide resistance gene would not be able to be passed to any non-infected mosquitos. A female mosquito would pass on both the gene and the bacteria to her eggs, while any non-infected female mating with an infected male would lead to eggs which will never hatch (due to cytoplasmic incompatibility). The end result would be that the only offspring from this population of infected mosquitos would also be infected, and therefore would be unable to spread viral infections to humans.

As well as dengue, the method is promising as a way of preventing other mosquito-borne illnesses, such as yellow fever, and perhaps eventually even malaria. The latest strain of bacteria which Hoffmann and Turelli are working with, named wMelPop, is a strong blocker of dengue and other viruses. Perhaps this method could eventually help to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases altogether.

the meantime, I’m noticing that typing up this article is having the psychosomatic effect of making me feel rather itchy. I’m going to take this as a sign that I should stop writing about mosquitos now. And perhaps take a shower…

Image: A Tasmanian mosquito feeding on human blood. Credit: J. J. Harrison/Wikimedia Commons

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-05-14 00:14:07). Mosquito-borne diseases: Fighting fire with fire. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/health/mosquito-borne-diseases-fighting-fire-with-fire/

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The bacteria that live inside hurricanes

Charles Ebikeme — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:32:07 +0000

Seven miles above the Earth’s surface, where the weather is born, lies the troposphere – the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Up there, where the clouds dance around, are bacteria that can make it rain, and are important for the formation of clouds.

The atmospheric microbiome is a concept and field of study that is gaining importance. As we come to grips with a changing climate and environment, understanding more and more our Earth ecosystem remains vital. With hurricane damage in the US and elsewhere seemingly on an exponential increase in recent decades, it is important to mitigate for the worst. It can cost as much as $1 million per square mile for evacuation preparations alone.

In 2010, NASA embarked on one of its largest hurricane research efforts — GRIP (Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes). The objective was to better understand and characterise how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. With a fleet of aircraft, ground-based instruments, computer models, and satellites, over a period of 6 months, GRIP collected all kinds of data on the nature, structure, dynamics, and motion of hurricanes. Invaluable data. They also collected one other thing — the microorganisms in the atmosphere.

The problem previously, had always been the difficulty in gathering enough microbial biomass to study. And previously, most samples have comes from areas too close to the Earth’s surface to really mean anything. GRIP took things one step further — high-altitude. Over the course of 9 flights across America, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean, GRIP collected bacterial and fungal samples to be analysed. Enough to answer the question: Where does the bacteria in the atmosphere come from? Authors, publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) today give a picture of the composition of the high-altitude (around 10 kilometres above sea level) bacterial and fungal flora, but also what that picture looks like in the aftermath of a hurricane.

The bacteria that swirl around in the air originate from different areas across the Earth’s surface it seems. The organisms they sampled originated from almost all habitats (ocean, soil, freshwater… etc as they put it). Hurricane samples had a higher abundance of marine bacteria, and only in the hurricane samples was there “a substantial signal of bacteria known to be associated with human and animal feces

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