Earth

STONY BROOK, N.Y., October 26, 2009 -- Relatively minor increases in ocean acidity brought about by high levels of carbon dioxide have significant detrimental effects on the growth, development, and survival of hard clams, bay scallops, and Eastern oysters, according to researchers at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

The largest congress worldwide on the topic of particle or ion therapy – radiation with heavy ions and protons – has taken place in the fall of 2009 in Heidelberg. Well over 600 international participants, especially from Japan and the USA, convened in the Heidelberg Town Hall for the annual meeting of the "Particle Therapy Cooperative Group" (PTCOG), including leading experts from the fields of radiation therapy, medical physics and oncology.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago.

Perhaps ironically, these volcanoes first caused global warming -- by releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

When they stopped erupting, Earth's climate was thrown off balance, and the ice age began.

The discovery underscores the importance of carbon in Earth's climate today, said Matthew Saltzman, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University.

Red blood cells, which make up 45 percent of blood, normally take the shape of circular cushions with a dimple on either side. But they can sometimes deform into an asymmetrical slipper shape. A team of physicists have used simulations to explore how fluid flow might be responsible for this deformation, as well as how the deformation in turn affects blood flow. The insights could help understand the mechanisms involved in arterial disease and other blood flow-related ailments.

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, October 26, 2009—The world's fastest supercomputer, Roadrunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory has completed its initial "shakedown" phase doing accelerated petascale computer modeling and simulations of a variety of unclassified, fundamental science projects.

The Roadrunner system is now beginning its transition to classified computing to assure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.

"There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following encompassing geoarchaeological research at the port of Caesarea. "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she says.

Buffalo, N.Y. – The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published today.

In the paper, titled "Recent Changes in a Remote Arctic Lake are Unique Within the Past 200,000 Years," sediments retrieved by University at Buffalo geologists from a remote Arctic lake show that recent variations are unlike those that have been seen during previous warming episodes.

While most people head to Myrtle Beach for vacation, a group of scientists have been hitting the famous South Carolina beach for years to figure out how to keep the sand from washing away.

Although they studied only a limited segment of beach, their work is a model for beach preservation that can apply elsewhere. And with talk of "balancing the sand budget" and money saved on restoration, their findings sound financial.

The study will be presented to scientists from around the world at the International Geological Programs Annual Conference, Oct. 25 to 31 in Myrtle Beach.

Investigating mysterious data in ultracold gases of rubidium atoms, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland and their collaborators have found that properly tuned radio-frequency waves can influence how much the atoms attract or repel one another, opening up new ways to control their interactions.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have successfully created in the laboratory a class of carbenes, highly reactive molecules, used to make catalysts – substances that facilitate chemical reactions. Until now, chemists believed these carbenes, called "abnormal N-heterocyclic carbenes" or aNHCs, were impossible to make.

Carbenes are made up of unusual carbon atoms and are usually unstable in nature. They attach themselves to metals to form metal-carbene complexes that serve as efficient catalysts used widely in the pharmaceutical industry.

When world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to hash out a treaty limiting carbon dioxide emissions, they should begin planning a future summit to address other pollutants – from soot to ozone – that don't remain in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, but nevertheless are major contributors to global warming.

That is the view of University of California, Berkeley, researcher Stacy C. Jackson, who presents her arguments in a policy piece appearing in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Science.

A Kansas State University geologist and graduate student are finding that the most important tools in their fieldwork on groundwater arsenic pollution are women and children armed with pamphlets and testing kits.

"When going into a foreign land, you need the common people's help, support and understanding of the work you are doing," said Saugata Datta, a K-State assistant professor of geology.

DURHAM, N.C. –- An ancient Confucian philosopher once said, "I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained."

Now, almost one thousand years since Zhou Dunyi wrote these lines in China, scientists finally understand how the plant keeps itself clean and dry. It took an ultra high speed camera, a powerful microscope and an audio speaker to unlock a secret that has puzzled scientists for ages.

A team of researchers from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) has developed a system to identify common patterns in versions of songs, which will help to quantify the similarity of musical pieces. The technique, which appears in the New Journal of Physics, could be applied to analyse time series of data in other fields, such as economy, biology or astronomy.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The fossil remains of some of the first animals with shells, ocean-dwelling creatures that measure a few centimeters in length and date to about 520 million years ago, provide a window on evolution at this time, according to scientists. Their research indicates that these animals were larger than previously thought.