http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/ http://www.redorbit.com/media/themes/redorbit/images/logo_160x80.gif http://www.redorbit.com/ 160 80 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112853677/how-do-oceans-breathe-paul-myers-research-grant-052213/ 2013-05-22T05:50:19+0000 April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has awarded Paul Myers, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, nearly $5 million for his study of deep ocean exchanges of carbon dioxide.

The study, titled “Ventilation, Interactions and Transports Across the Labrador Sea,” will receive the award over the next five years. Myers says he chose the Labrador Sea because it’s vital to understand more about the deepwater processes close to Canadian shores.

“It’s one of few deepwater bodies in the world where there is exchange from the surface all the way down to the deep layers of ocean,” said Myers.

Myers plans to aid in the development of technologies, including new ocean bottom-to-surface transportation equipment manufactured by Rolls-Royce. “The equipment will carry monitoring equipment to the full depth of the Labrador Sea and back to the surface,” said Myers.

Moorings will be installed far out in the Labrador Sea to support monitoring equipment to collect data at various depths between the ocean floor and the surface. This will provide opportunities for Canadian-made technology.

“Canadian physical and biogeochemical sensors will provide a high-visibility showcase of advanced ocean technology,” said Myers. “This will enhance technology transfer to Canadian companies and give international visibility for unique Canadian products.”

Without the federal funding, Myers says it wouldn’t be possible to take on a deepwater research project of this scope.

“It’s also an opportunity for U of A students and post-docs to get experience in deepwater research—and they’re the next generation of marine and climate scientists.”

The project will be out on the water this summer, Myers said, and should have the new equipment in place a year from now.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112853671/hawaiian-coral-reef-model-tracks-distribution-abundance-052213/ 2013-05-22T05:12:34+0000 Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Researchers from the University of Hawaii say they have predicted the abundance and distribution of coral around the island state by using a computer model.

The team said they found the order of coral abundance around the main Hawaiian Islands to be Porites lobata, Montipora patula, Pocillopora meandrina, Montipora capitata, Porites compressa, and Montipora flabellata. This is the first study to systematically examine the influence of these factors on the distribution and abundance of coral species across the entire seascape of shallow reefs in the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI).

"Average wave height and maximum wave height were the most influential variables explaining coral abundance in the Hawaiian Islands," reported Erik Franklin, lead author of the study and Assistant Research Professor at the UHM Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. "Our models also identified relationships between coral cover and island age, depth, sunlight, rugosity, slope, and aspect (direction a slope faces)."

Researchers said they were able to predict coral cover to the highest in primarily wave-sheltered coastlines and embayments. Reefs with the highest cover were concentrated in Kaneohe Bay on Oahu; reefs of Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Kahoolawe; and the Kohala coast of Hawaii.

The team integrated field surveys for corals with environmental data of wave exposure benthic geomorphology, and sunlight from 2000 to 2009. Regional-scale mapping of coral species from these models provide a framework for population modeling and marine spatial planning of Hawaiian coral reefs.

The geographic characterization of coral reefs could benefit greatly from the improved coral distribution and abundance information generated from coral distribution models. The researchers say data from these models could be used in marine conservation plans or for threat assessments to reefs.

"For example, our results were recently used in the management plan review process of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary as they considered the distribution and abundance of animals other than whales," Franklin says.

An advantage of this modeling approach is that scientists can consider a broader range of areas than field surveys alone. This could help provide a larger picture of total abundance.

"We were most surprised at the high relative abundance of Montipora patula which is currently under consideration for listing as a threatened or endangered species," reported Franklin.

The team is in the process of extending the modeling approach to include additional marine species in Hawaii, such as reef fish and include additional environmental variables to try to improve the predictive capacity of the models.

Coral reefs across the globe are being threatened by the climate change. However, the fight to save the ocean's colorful structures is not over. Researchers wrote in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that limiting global warming could help buy coral reefs more time. They said restricting greenhouse gases to just 50 − 100 parts per million carbon dioxide would avoid large-scale reductions in reef habitat.

Research findings are published in Marine Ecology Progress Series.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112853067/practice-makes-perfect-may-not-be-true-052113/ 2013-05-21T17:05:21+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Is “practice makes perfect” an age-old adage to live by or just thinking inside-the-box?

According to University of Michigan associate professor Zachary Hambrick, endless hours spent trying to perfect a skill could be a waste of time.

In a new study published in the journal Intelligence, Hambrick and a team of American researchers suggest that “deliberate practice is not sufficient to explain individual differences in performance” among musicians and chess players.

“Practice is indeed important to reach an elite level of performance, but this paper makes an overwhelming case that it isn’t enough,” Hambrick said. “The evidence is quite clear that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice.”

In the study, the team reviewed 14 studies involving chess players and musicians and looked explicitly at how practice routine was related to performance. They found that time spent practicing accounted for only about one third of the measurable skill differences in both music and chess.

Hambrick said that the discrepancy can be explained by other factors such as intelligence, innate ability, or age.

One of Hambrick’s previous studies from 2011 found that a person’s working memory capacity could mean the difference between being good and being great. Based on a series of experiments involving participants performing complex tasks such as sight-reading music, Hambrick found that people with higher levels of working memory capacity outperformed those with a lower capacity, regardless of experience with the required task. Working memory is the ability to simultaneously hold and manipulate multiple pieces of transitory information in the mind.

“While the specialized knowledge that accumulates through practice is the most important ingredient to reach a very high level of skill, it’s not always sufficient,” Hambrick said after releasing the study in 2011. “Working memory capacity can still predict performance in complex domains such as music, chess, science, and maybe even in sports that have a substantial mental component such as golf.”

Despite the results of his latest study showing that the old adage “practice makes perfect” may not necessarily be true, Hambrick said the study does have a silver lining.

“If people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving certain goals given those abilities,” he said, “they may gravitate toward domains in which they have a realistic chance of becoming an expert through deliberate practice.”

Other notable figures have been questioning the commonly held belief that hours spent practicing a skill translates into mastering that skill. Author Tim Ferriss has written a series of books based on the principle of “more-is-less” and maximizing personal results using minimal effort. His first book, The 4-Hour Work Week, focuses on wasteful habits in the workplace, while his other books examine efficiency with respect to fitness and quickly learning how to cook at an elite level. Ferris has sold millions of books and travels across the world preaching his principles of efficiency and railing against long-held notions such as “practice makes perfect.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852898/woolly-mammoth-extinct-climate-change-meteorite-impact-052113/ 2013-05-21T16:08:14+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

We humans have often blamed ourselves for the extinction of the woolly mammoth, but a new study from a large team of international researchers has found evidence of a large meteorite breaking apart in the atmosphere about 13,000 years ago – around the time when the prehistoric pachyderms died out.

By studying sediment layers from 18 archaeological sites around the world, the team found tiny spheres of carbon they say are telltale signs of multiple impacts and meteorites' mid-air explosions, according to their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

These tiny bits of carbon, called spherules, are formed when substances burn at extremely high temperatures. According to the study, the samples that were collected across four continents represent an estimated 10 million metric tons of material and could only have been formed by the combustion of rock on a massive scale.

“We know something came close enough to Earth and it was hot enough that it melted rock – that’s what these carbon spherules are,” said co-author Kenneth Tankersley, an assistant professor of anthropology and geology at the University of Cincinnati (UC). “In order to create this type of evidence that we see around the world, it was big.”

Tankersly compared just such an event with the 1883 volcanic explosion on Krakatoa in Indonesia.

“When Krakatoa blew its stack, Cincinnati had no summer,” he said. “Imagine winter all year-round. That’s just one little volcano blowing its top.”

After an event of this magnitude, the researchers said toxic gas would have poisoned the air and blocked out the sun – causing global temperatures to drop. The rapid climate change would have forced the existing plant and animal life into two groups: “winners” and “losers”.

Those that were able to could relocate to a more hospitable climate. Other species may have adjusted their way of living to compensate for their new ecosystem. Some species, like the mammoth, simply went extinct, according to the scientists.

“Whatever this was, it did not cause the extinctions,” Tankersley said. “Rather, this likely caused climate change. And climate change forced this scenario: You can move, downsize or you can go extinct.”

The Cincinnati scientist said that type of global climate change does have some resonance in these modern times.

“Whether we want to admit it or not, we’re living right now in a period of very rapid and profound global climate change. We’re also living in a time of mass extinction,” Tankersley said. “So I would argue that a lot of the lessons for surviving climate change are actually in the past.”

Tankersley also warned about the possibility of another cosmic event that could repeat the events of 13,000 years ago.

“One additional catastrophic change that we often fail to think about – and it’s beyond our control – is something from outer space,” Tankersley said in a statement. “It’s a reminder of how fragile we are.”

“Imagine an explosion that happened today that went across four continents,” he said. “The human species would go on. But it would be different. It would be a game changer.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852889/macrophages-key-in-salamander-regeneration-052113/ 2013-05-21T15:06:03+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

For years, scientists have considered salamanders the ‘Holy Grail’ of biological regeneration. Now, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has revealed an exciting step forward in the quest to adapt this ability for medical use in humans.

Based on experiments with the tiny amphibians, researchers from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University have found that elements of a salamander’s immune system called macrophages play a key role in enabling the regenerative process.

"Previously, we thought that macrophages were negative for regeneration, and this research shows that that's not the case – if the macrophages are not present in the early phases of healing, regeneration does not occur," said lead author James Godwin, a research fellow at the institute.

The Australian researchers focused their study on the axolotl, an aquatic amphibian also known as the Mexican salamander. They found that removing macrophages from the salamanders eliminated their regenerative abilities, causing tissue scarring.

Macrophages also play a role in the mammalian immune system, engulfing and digesting infection-causing pathogens at the wound site, and generating the inflammatory and anti-inflammatory signals for healing.

In the study, researchers detected signals of inflammation at the salamanders’ wound sites within a day of the amputations. However, anti-inflammatory signals were also present after a single day. In mammals, the anti-inflammatory response occurs much later, typically after two to four days.

The researchers also saw macrophages at the wound, reaching maximum concentration four to six days after the injury. To investigate the role of macrophages in the process, the team injected the amphibians with a chemical substance capable of destroying or depleting these cells.

Salamanders that completely lost their macrophages failed to generate new limbs and formed considerable scar-tissue buildup instead. Salamanders that still had some of their macrophages could still regenerate lost limbs at a slower than normal pace.

Once the salamanders’ macrophage levels returned to normal through natural processes, the researchers re-amputated several limbs, which then fully regenerated at the normal rate. These results indicate the essential role that macrophages play in the wound-healing process.

"Now, we need to find out exactly how these macrophages are contributing to regeneration,” Godwin said. “Down the road, this could lead to therapies that tweak the human immune system down a more regenerative pathway."

Besides the fantastical ability to re-grow arms, legs or even spinal cords, Godwin suggested that learning about the healing abilities of salamanders could show the way to new treatments for other common conditions that are linked to fibrosis or scarring, such as liver disease. The technology could also improve a patient’s recovery following surgery.

“Some of these regenerative pathways may still be open to us. We may be able to turn up the volume on some of these processes," Godwin said. "We need to know exactly what salamanders do and how they do it well, so we can reverse-engineer that into human therapies."

In the meantime, he said, "we can look to salamanders as a template of what perfect regeneration looks like."]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852859/solar-impulse-prepares-second-flight-across-america-052113/ 2013-05-21T13:21:54+0000 Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

The Solar Impulse team of Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg is preparing for the second leg of the Across America 2013 tour, which will see the zero-fuel HB-SIA airplane fly from Phoenix, Arizona to Dallas, Texas.

Piccard took the helm for the first leg of the journey on May 3, taking off from Moffett Field in Mountain View, California in the solar-powered aircraft. He left the runway shortly after 6:12 a.m. PDT and soared high above several landmarks on his way to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, landing at 12:30 a.m. PDT on May 4, after a little more than 18 hours in the sky.

For the second leg of the tour, Borschberg is set to take the controls. The flight is scheduled for a take-off at around 5:00 a.m. PDT, heading east towards Roswell, New Mexico and then on toward Abilene, Hobbs and then on to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, with a scheduled landing time at 1:00 a.m. on May 23, 2013.

If all goes as planned Borschberg will set the world record for longest flight in a zero-fuel airplane. The Phoenix-to-Dallas flight should be over 830 miles, significantly farther than the current record, which was also set by Borschberg when he piloted the Solar Impulse aircraft 693 miles from Switzerland to Spain in May, 2012.

“By achieving historical firsts and setting new records, Solar Impulse hopes to inspire everyone to be pioneers and change-makers to bring solutions for today's challenges. Clean Generation, Solar Impulse's latest initiative to create a global movement to promote the use of clean technology, is already rallying thousands of people to support the adoption of sustainable energy solutions. The names of those who join this movement are carried on a USB key kept in the cockpit and transported across America as virtual passengers,” said the Solar Impulse team in an emailed statement to redOrbit.

The Solar Impulse team is carrying custom-designed flags displaying the Clean Generation slogan, handing one off to civic leaders at each stop during the Across America 2013 tour. The flags are meant to encourage citizens, CEOs and policymakers to adopt green technology and follow in Solar Impulse’s footsteps as pioneering spirits of clean energy.

In Phoenix, the Clean Generation flag was handed to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who visited Solar Impulse at Phoenix Sky Harbor during a dinner organized by the Swiss consulate.

Once Borschberg arrives in Dallas-Fort Worth, the Solar Impulse team will rest for a few weeks before the third stage of the flight carries on. Piccard will be at the helm again for the third leg, flying from Dallas to St. Louis, Missouri.

The Solar Impulse Across America 2013 mission is made possible by support from partners including Solvay, Schindler, Bayer Material Science, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Sunpower and the Swiss Confederation.

Although the flight has been confirmed, the team may still need to make last minute adjustments and could postpone the flight shortly or alter the route before take-off.

The flight may be tracked on the Internet via computer and mobile connectivity and each leg of the journey will be streamed live on the Solar Impulse website as well as via Twitter and Facebook.

People interested in being a part of the Solar Impulse Clean Generation movement can sign up at solarimpulse.com.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852639/bilingual-people-use-different-sound-systems-052113/ 2013-05-21T12:22:47+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

New research from the University of Arizona shows that bilingual individuals switch between two different ‘sound systems’ in their brain when alternating between languages.

“A lot of research has shown that bilinguals are pretty good at accommodating speech variation across languages, but there’s been a debate as to how,” explained Kalim Gonzales, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona and lead author of the study, which will appear in a future edition of the journal Psychological Science.

“There are two views: One is that bilinguals have different processing modes for their two languages – they have a mode for processing speech in one language and then a mode for processing speech in the other language,” Gonzales said. “Another view is that bilinguals just adjust to speech variation by recalibrating to the unique acoustic properties of each language.”

The new study supports the first view – that bilinguals have a separate sound processing method for each language they know. For example, the ‘pa’ and ‘ba’ sounds both exist in English and Spanish. However, when pronouncing ‘ba,’ English speakers learn to vibrate their vocal chords as they open their lips, while Spanish speakers vibrate their vocal chords slightly before saying ‘pa.’ As a result, English-only speakers might confuse the ‘ba’ and ‘pa’ sounds when made by a native Spanish speaker.

"When most people think about differences between languages, they think they use different words and they have different grammars, but at their base languages use different sounds," said study co-author Andrew Lotto, UA associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences.

In the study, the researchers recruited 32 Spanish-English bilingual speakers who had learned both languages before the age of 8. The participants were divided into two groups: One group was told they would be hearing little-used Spanish words, while the other group was told they would be hearing uncommon English words.

The researchers played both groups audio recordings of the same two fake words – “bafri” and “pafri.” They then asked the participants to identify whether the words they heard began with a ‘ba’ or a ‘pa’ sound. Additionally, for the group that was told they were hearing Spanish, the ‘r’ in each word was said with a Spanish pronunciation.

The researchers found that participants perceived the ‘ba’ and ‘pa’ sounds differently based on context – whether it was with the Spanish pronunciation of ‘r’ or the English pronunciation of ‘r.’

"What this showed is that when you put people in English mode, they actually would act like English speakers, and then if you put them in Spanish mode, they would switch to acting like Spanish speakers," Lotto said. "These bilinguals, hearing the exact same 'ba's and 'pa's would label them differently depending on the context."

When the study was repeated with 32 English-only speakers, participants labeled the 'ba' and 'pa' sounds the same way despite any language or pronunciation context.

"Up until this point we haven't had a good answer to whether bilinguals actually learn two different codes – so a 'ba-pa' English code and a 'ba-pa' Spanish code – or whether they learn something that's sort of in the middle," Lotto said. "This is one of the first clear demonstrations that bilinguals really do have two different sounds systems and that they can switch between one language and the other and then use that sound system."]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852617/the-igert-2013-video-and-poster-competition-052113/ 2013-05-21T09:33:51+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

While recognized in the scientific world for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) system of power delivery, Nikola Tesla is also highly regarded as a scientific showman – performing many electrical demonstrations in front of a live audience.

“When the current was turned on, the lamps or tubes, which had no wires connected to them, but lay on a table between the suspended plates, or which might be held in the hand in almost any part of the room, were made luminous,” wrote author John Patrick Barrett about one of Tesla’s demonstrations in his 1894 book Electricity at the Columbia Exposition. “These were the same experiments and the same apparatus shown by Tesla in London about two years previous, where they produced so much wonder and astonishment.”

In an effort to frame research in a more dramatic fashion, TERC, a not-for-profit group based in Cambridge, Mass., has announced the start of online voting to select a winner for its third annual Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) 2013 Video and Poster Competition.

Once an academic poster contest, the competition has been re-imagined to include multimedia that reveals IGERT students and faculty’s “latest interdisciplinary research changing our world (and the awesome young scientists and engineers behind that work),” according TERC spokeswoman Kacy Karlen.

To encourage potential entrants, 2012 award winner Mathew Cooper stressed the importance of conveying research in a multimedia format.

“As scientists, video is a very powerful tool,” Cooper said in an online video. “If you can encapsulate your project and your results into a three-minute video that’s accessible to the broader community, to funding agencies, to folks that need to see your work – that’s a tool that’s going to take you a long way in your careers. And, I so think this competition is a way… is a good excuse for you to really dive into that and figure out what it takes to produce these videos.”

The competition’s organizers note that video and social media allow for more complex or mundane ideas to be conveyed in a more immediate and exciting fashion. They said that showcasing scientific research in multimedia format can enable researchers to connect with each other and the general public in a more profound way.

“Last year's presenters (from over 125 IGERT programs nationwide) submitted 113 videos, highlighting research across topics like biologically-inspired robotic engineering, smart textile design, nano-plasmonic engineering for energy efficiency, and more,” Karlen said.

As a way to assist this year’s contestants, the competition’s organizers created a video series featuring last year’s awardees giving tips on how to convert research into a social media-friendly format.

Fifty IGERT faculty judges will choose 20 winners, four winners will be chosen by IGERT Community members and one Public Choice award will be determined by ‘likes’ on Facebook.

Voting for the competitions’ Community Choice and Public Choice awards begins on May 21. The next day, contestants must answer judges’ queries about their entries by midnight EDT. On May 23, voting for the Community Choice and Public Choice awards ends at 10pm EDT. The winners are scheduled to be announced on May 24.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852355/fossils-show-baby-dinosaur-brain-growth-052113/ 2013-05-21T08:31:30+0000 April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

A new study led by the University of Bristol’s Stephan Lautenschlager, a postgraduate Geology researcher, has demonstrated how the brain and inner ear developed rapidly in young dinosaurs.

Lautenschlager collaborated with Tom Hübner from the Niedersächsische Landesmuseum in Hannover, Germany to pick the brains of 150-million-year-old dinosaurs. They studied two different fossils of the Jurassic dinosaur Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki – a small, plant-eating dinosaur, which lived 150 million years ago, in what is now present-day Tanzania. The two specimens were of a juvenile of approximately three years of age and an adult specimen of more than 12 years. The results of their study were published online in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Lautenschlager explained, "The two different growth stages of Dysalotosaurus provided a unique opportunity to study their brain, and how it developed during the growth of the animal."

The team used high-resolution CT scanning and 3D computer imaging to reconstruct and visualize the brain and inner ear of the Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki.

"Well-preserved fossil material, which can be used to reconstruct the brain anatomy, is usually rare. Thus, we were fortunate to have different growth stages available for our study,” said Hübner.

The research team examined the brain and inner ear anatomy, and found that the Dysalotosaurus brain underwent large-scale changes during growth. This was most likely a response to environmental and metabolic requirements. Important parts responsible for hearing and cognitive processes, however, were already well developed in the younger fossil.

Lautenschlager said, "Our study shows that the brain was already well-developed in the young dinosaurs and adapted perfectly to interact with their environment and other individuals."

The researchers believe that the study has important implications for understanding how parts of the brain developed in dinosaurs. They suggest, though, that further research is needed to understand if the pattern of brain development in individual dinosaurs is also reflected in a large scale trend during the more than 150 million years of dinosaur evolution.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852255/amazon-river-is-not-a-passive-pipe-052113/ 2013-05-21T07:12:37+0000 April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

The Amazon rainforest is known as the lungs of the planet because it inhales carbon dioxide and exudes oxygen into the atmosphere. The plants of the forest use the carbon dioxide to promote leafy growth, which eventually falls to the ground and decomposes or washes away from the region’s plentiful rainfall.

Until recently, the belief was that most of the rainforest’s carbon floated away on the Amazon River, ending up deep in the ocean. A study from the University of Washington over a decade ago showed that rivers exhale huge amounts of carbon dioxide. However, the study left open the question of how that was possible; since bark and stems were thought to be too tough for river bacteria to digest.

A new University of Washington-led study has found the answer, proving that woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River, which plays a major part in fueling the river’s breath. The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, have implications for global carbon models and for the ecology of the Amazon and other rivers around the world.

“People thought this was one of the components that just got dumped into the ocean,” said Nick Ward, a UW doctoral student in oceanography. “We’ve found that terrestrial carbon is respired and basically turned into carbon dioxide as it travels down the river.”

The main part of the woody tissue is formed from tough lignin, the second most common component of terrestrial plants. Until now, scientists believed that most of it was buried on the seafloor where it would stay for centuries or a millennia. The new study, however, shows that river bacteria break the lignin down within two weeks. The result is that just five percent of the Amazon rainforest’s carbon ever reaches the ocean.

“Rivers were once thought of as passive pipes,” said Jeffrey Richey, a UW professor of oceanography. “This shows they’re more like metabolic hotspots.”

The prior studies demonstrated how much carbon dioxide was outgassing from rivers, but scientists knew it didn’t add up. This led to speculation that there might be some unknown, short-lived carbon source that freshwater bacteria could turn into carbon dioxide.

“The fact that lignin is proving to be this metabolically active is a big surprise,” Richey said. “It’s a mechanism for the rivers’ role in the global carbon cycle – it’s the food for the river breath.”

Approximately one-fifth of the world’s freshwater is discharged from the Amazon. The river plays a large role in global processes, as well as serving as a test bed for natural river ecosystems.

For more than three decades, Richey and his collaborators have studied the Amazon River. The earlier study took place more than 500 miles upstream from the current study site situated at the mouth of the world’s largest river – a treacherous study site. The team of US and Brazilian researchers chose this location because they sought to understand the connection between the river and the ocean.

“There’s a reason that no one’s really studied in this area,” Ward said. “Pulling it off has been quite a challenge. It’s a humongous, sloppy piece of water.”

The team crossed the three river mouths using flat-bottomed boats. The river mouths are each so wide that you cannot see land from the boats, with water so rich with sediment that it looks like chocolate milk. Part of the reason this area is so hard on researchers is that the ocean is raised 30 feet by the tides, reversing the flow of freshwater at the river mouth, and winds blow at up to 35 mph.

Ward collected river water samples in all four seasons in these dangerous conditions. The original samples were compared with ones left to sit for up to a week at river temperatures. Once back in the laboratory at UW, Ward used newly developed techniques to scan the samples for some 100 compounds that covered 95 percent of all plant-based lignin. Techniques previously used could identify only 1 percent of the plant-based carbon in the water.

The study estimates that about 40 percent of the Amazon’s lignin breaks down in soils. Another 55 percent breaks down in the river system and the final five percent reaches the ocean, where it may break down or sink to the ocean floor.

“People had just assumed, ‘Well, it’s not energetically feasible for an organism to break lignin apart, so why would they?’” Ward said. “We’re thinking that as rain falls over the land it’s taking with it these lignin compounds, but it’s also taking with it the bacterial community that’s really good at eating the lignin.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852247/blind-people-can-potentially-use-echolocation-052113/ 2013-05-21T05:51:25+0000 April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Researchers have known for a long time that blind and visually impaired people rely on other senses. A new study led by the University of Southampton, however, now shows that they have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that of bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object.

The researchers examined how hearing, particularly the hearing of echoes, could help blind people with spatial awareness and navigation. They also investigated the possible effects of hearing impairment and how echolocation could be optimized in order to help improve the independence and quality of life for people with visual impairments.

Scientists from the University of Southampton's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) collaborated with researchers from the University of Cyprus to conduct a series of experiments with sighted and blind human listeners. They used a “virtual auditory space” technique to investigate the effects of the distance and orientation of a reflective object on ability to identify the right-versus-left position of the object.

Sounds with different bandwidths and durations - from 10–400 milliseconds - as well as various audio manipulations were used to investigate which aspects of the sounds were important. ISVR’s anechoic chamber was used to create the virtual auditory space, which allowed researchers to remove positional clues unrelated to echoes, such as footsteps and the placement of an object. They were also able to manipulate the sounds in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise, such as getting rid of the emission and presenting the echo only.

According to Dr. Daniel Rowan, Lecturer in Audiology: "We wanted to determine unambiguously whether blind people, and perhaps even sighted people, can use echoes from an object to determine roughly where the object is located. We also wanted to figure out what factors facilitate and restrict people's abilities to use echoes for this purpose in order to know how to enhance ability in the real world."

The study findings reveal that both sighted and blind people with good hearing showed the potential to use echoes to tell where objects are located, even if they were completely inexperienced with echolocation. Hearing high high-frequency sounds (above 2 kHz) is required for good performance, the researchers found, suggesting that common forms of hearing impairment will probably cause major problems.

"Some people are better at this than others, and being blind doesn't automatically confer good echolocation ability, though we don't yet know why. Nevertheless, ability probably gets even better with extensive experience and feedback,” adds Dr. Rowan.

"We also found that our ability to use echoes to locate an object gets rapidly worse with increasing distance from the object, especially when the object is not directly facing us. While our experiments purposely removed any influence of head movement, doing so might help extend ability to farther distances. Furthermore, some echo-producing sounds are better for determining where an object is than others, and the best sounds for locating an object probably aren't the same as for detecting the object or determining what, and how far away, the object is."

The study findings will help other researchers to develop training programs and assistive devices for the blind and the sighted in low-vision situations. The team intends to continue their research to investigate finding of objects in three-dimensional space and why some blind people seem to be able to outperform others, including sighted people.

Findings of the study are published in the journal Hearing Research.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852241/earthquakes-can-be-slow-and-gradual-052013/ 2013-05-21T05:00:17+0000 Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Researchers have been aware of slow earthquakes for only the past decade, but little has been understood about them. However, new tools may help explain what triggers these quakes.

Scientists thought slow earthquakes were related to the type of rock in the fault, believing that clay minerals are important in slip behavior. A team writing in the journal Nature Geoscience performed laboratory experiments using natural samples taken where slow earthquakes occur to gain a little more understanding about the natural event.

"New technology has shown us that faults do not just fail in a sudden earthquake or by stable creep," said Demian M. Saffer, professor of geoscience, Penn State. "We now know that earthquakes with anomalous low frequencies -- slow earthquakes -- and slow slip events that take weeks to occur exist."

He said usually when you shear clay-rich fault rocks in the laboratory in the way rocks are sheared in a fault, as the speed increases, the rocks become stronger and self-arrests the movement.

"Initially the rocks reacted as expected, but these clays got weaker as they slid further. They initially became slightly stronger as the slip rate increased, but then, over the long run, they became weaker," Saffer said.

One of the team's experiments closely matched the velocity at which slow earthquakes occur in nature. They also found that water content in the clays helped influence how the shear occurred.

"From the physics of earthquake nucleation based on the laboratory experiments we would predict the size of the patch of fault that breaks at tens of meters," said Saffer. "The consistent result for the rates of slip and the velocity of slip in the lab are interesting. Lots of things point in the direction for this to be the solution."

Experts worry about slow earthquakes because there is evidence that shows low frequency events can actually trigger larger earthquake events.

In 2011, scientists found that slow earthquake areas and the ultra-slow velocity layers cluster together, and that regions of non-volcanic tremors are adjacent to those clusters. They echoed Saffer and his team's findings by saying that the events could be tied to high levels of water saturation.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852258/big-story-weather-052113/ 2013-05-21T04:00:03+0000
redOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly



Big Story Weather from May 20: A very sad day yesterday as a large EF-4 or 5 tornado hit the city of Moore, Oklahoma creating wide-spread damage. This was one of many tornadoes to hit yesterday in what is the most deadliest day of severe weather for the United States this year. The tornadoes had formed along a very slow moving cold front and impacted as far north as Iowa last night. Large hail was also a concern with many places getting hail the size of golf balls and larger. There was also massive wind damage from the storms. Please give a moment of prayer/thought for the people of Moore OK today.



Big Story Weather Discussion for May 21: The warm front will push into the Northeast today bringing showers and thunderstorms to the East Coast. An upper air feature will bring another day of showers and thunderstorms to the Southeast Coast. High pressure along the Florida Gulf Coast will keep the region nice today. Our strong storm system will push into the Great Lakes, however the cold front will extend all the way back into Oklahoma and Texas again. This region will be impacted with strong to severe storms. If you live anywhere along this front please pay close attention to your news outlets today.

Severe Weather: A large area of severe weather is possible from Eastern Texas all the way to the Great Lakes. Another day of damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes is likely in this region. A second area of strong-severe thunderstorms will be possible over parts of the Southeast associated with an upper level trough. This region should mostly see damaging winds and some hail. There is a smaller tornado threat for this area as well.

Here is the weather for a few select cities:

Baltimore MD: Mostly cloudy with afternoon thunderstorms and a high near 79F. Overnight lows will be around 70F. Total rainfall today will be around 0.50 inches.

Atlanta GA: Mostly cloudy with afternoon thunderstorms and a high near 82F. Overnight lows will be around 72F. Total rainfall will be near 0.50 inches.

Topeka KS: Mostly cloudy with periods of light rain today. High temps will be around 70F and overnight lows will fall to around 57F. Total rainfall for today will be around 0.25 inches.

Denver CO: Partly cloudy today with a high near 61F. Overnight lows will be near 54F.

San Diego CA: Partly cloudy with a high near 70F. Overnight lows will drop to near 62F.



May 21, 2013 Storm Tracker Update:

Atlantic Basin: Low pressure moving through Western Europe will bring showers to the region. Another area of low pressure moving towards Greenland will bring showers and possibly snow showers to the area. Two areas of lower pressure are currently along the ITCZ in the Atlantic basin and will have to be watched over the next couple of days. Low pressure moving into the Great Lakes will bring another day of severe weather to the region and will reach all the way southward back into Oklahoma and Texas.

Eastern Pacific: Low pressure moving into Western Canada will bring showers and even a few snow showers to the region and showers to the Pacific Northwest. Another area of low pressure moving through the Gulf of Alaska will bring showers and snow showers to the region. An area of low pressure to the northeast of Hawaii will bring winds/seas to the region. The remains of Alvin continue to drift slowly to the west.

Western Pacific: Low pressure moving through Central China will bring showers to the region. Low pressure to the northeast of Japan will bring a trailing frontal boundary through the region. Expect to see showers and clouds along the boundary. Low pressure moving along the East Coast of China will bring showers and thunderstorms to Okinawa.

Indian Ocean: Two areas of low pressure are moving along the monsoonal trough just to the south of India and also in the Bay of Bengal.

Southern Hemisphere: Multiple areas of low pressure are moving through the basin with one storm system impacting Argentina with showers and also some higher elevation snows. Low pressure moving through Eastern Australia will bring showers to the region as well.



Five-Day Storm Index Outlook for May 21-25:

Baltimore MD: The next four days the region will have slight to moderate impacts with strong to sever thunderstorms possible in the region. The period will finish impact free.

Atlanta GA: The next three days the region will see slight to moderate impacts associated with strong to severe thunderstorms. The period will finish impact free.

Topeka KS: The area will have slight impacts today associated with showers. Moderate impacts will be possible by May 24-25 as another round of thunderstorms move into the region.

Denver CO: The area will start impact free. By May 24 the region will have slight to moderate impacts associated with a few thunderstorms moving into the region.

San Diego CA: The area will enjoy being impact free for the next five days.



Climate Watch for May 16-20:

Baltimore MD: The period saw temps around 7-8 degrees above normal to start with and then cooled down to around 5-7 degrees below. The period finished with temps back near 5 degrees above normal.

Atlanta GA: The period began with temps around 1-2 degrees above normal followed by temps dropping to near 6-8 degrees below normal. The period finished with temps around 4 degrees above normal.

Topeka KS: The past five days the region has seen temps around 5-8 degrees above normal.

Denver CO: The area started with temps about 5-16 degrees above normal and then finished the period with temps around 3-7 degrees below normal.

San Diego CA: The period started with temps about 2 degrees below normal followed by a 1-2 degree above normal period then fell just below normal again before finishing the period just above normal.

Major Weather Impacts Discussion for May 21, 2013:

Day 1-3: A strong storm system moving into the Great Lakes and the associated cold front will be the center of attention today for the potential of another round of severe weather in the region from Illinois to Oklahoma. A new storm system moving onshore over the Pacific Northwest will bring showers and higher elevation snows to the region. Day two the storm system will push into the Eastern Lakes and the cold front will extend to the Gulf Coast. This will provide another day of showers and thunderstorms along that boundary with some severe weather possible. The storm system will also move into the Rockies bringing rain to the region. The period will finish with the low pressure exiting the Northeast and the frontal boundary bringing showers and thunderstorms to the entire East Coast. High pressure will be over the Northern Plains and Great Lakes, while low pressure slides into the Southern Rockies.

Day 4-7: The period will start with a large area of high pressure over the Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast. Storms will be back over parts of the Plains with the next storm system. Day five high pressure will be along both coasts with a storm system moving through the Northern Plains. The period will finish with high pressure along the East Coast and the storm system still bringing showers and thunderstorms to the Northern Plains. A new storm system will graze the Northwest.

Day 8-12: The period will start with high pressure along the East Coast and a warm front extending from the Plains across the Great Lakes. Expect to see showers and thunderstorms in this region. Low pressure over the Northern Plains will bring showers and thunderstorms to the region. Day ten high pressure will be over the Southeast, while a storm system moves through the Northeast and another one moves into the Northern Plains. There could be some severe weather with this system. Day eleven we could be dealing with severe weather over the Northern Plains and also a tropical wave over the Yucatan Peninsula. The period will finish with high pressure along the East Coast, a storm system in the Great Lakes, and another in the Northern Plains.

Long Range Outlook: The long range will start with showers over the Great Lakes and the Western Rockies. The tropical wave will push slightly into the Southeastern Gulf. The period will finish with a tropical feature in the Gulf of Mexico.



Today's Spotlight Forecast is for Sioux Falls SD:

Tuesday: Mostly cloudy with showers. High temps will be around 56F. Winds will be from the northeast 7-12mph as overnight lows fall to around 47F. Total daytime rainfall will be around 0.25 inches.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy with showers. High temps will be around 54F. Overnight lows fall to around 42F. Winds will be from the northeast 7-12mph and total rainfall for the day will be around 0.15 inches.

Thursday: Partly cloudy and warmer with a high near 69F. Winds will be from the southeast 7-12mph as overnight lows fall to around 44F.

Friday: Partly cloudy with afternoon thunderstorms. High temps will be around 68F and overnight lows will fall to near 56F. Winds will be from the southeast 12-17mph and total rainfall will be around 0.15 inches.

Saturday: Partly cloudy with afternoon thunderstorms. High temps will be around 66F and overnight lows will fall to near 60F. Winds will be from the southeast 10-15mph and total rainfall will be near 0.60 inches.

Ask The Weatherman for May 21, 2013:

Question: What does EF stand for in weather?

Answer: Today we look at a severe weather term known as EF or Enhanced Fujita Scale. This is an updated scale from the original scale that was created by Ed Fujita. Ed studied a massive tornado outbreak that hit the Midwest and was able to come up with crucial information in the tornado research area. He created the first measurements of tornadoes known as the Fujita scale.

*** To have your question of the day answered or have your city spotlighted for the day make sure to visit redOrbit on Facebook. ***



Green Energy Weather Report for May 21, 2013:

Wave Energy: There will be slight to moderate wave energy potential for the Northeast and also the Mid-Atlantic Region. The Southeast should have moderate wave energy potential with an upper level feature moving near the coast. The Northern Gulf of Mexico will have slight wave energy today as the winds will be rather light in the region. The Southwest will be looking at moderate amounts of energy and the Pacific Northwest will have moderate to excellent wave energy potentials as a storm system moves on shore through the region.

Solar Energy: The best place for solar energy today will be through the Rockies and down into the Southwest. A second area will be along the Gulf Coast region and then a small region will be possible over the Northeast.

Wind Energy: The strongest wind energy locations today will be over the Dakotas behind the low pressure area and also over the Rockies right behind the cold front. This will push the cold air into the Plains.

Hydro-Energy: There will be a large area of hydro energy today from the Great Lakes back into the Southern Plains along the frontal boundary. A second area will be from the Ohio River Valley into the Mid-Atlantic region and also into portions of the Southeast. A new storm system moving on shore over the Northwest will bring some energy to that region as well. There could also be some snowfall in this region at higher elevations.



May 21 Weather and Your Wallet (Biloxi MS):

High pressure to the east will bring partly cloudy skies and southeasterly flow.

Dining: Today will be an excellent day to have lunch outdoors.

Transportation: There will be no weather issues on the roads today.

Shopping: Today will be a very nice day to hit the malls and stores.

Electricity: There will be a moderate demand for cooling all day long with the highest amounts coming between 3pm and 7pm. We are looking at about 14.5CDD’s for the day.

Yard Work: The sun is going to bring the heat today. The flowers and the gardens are going to be happy with 28.5GDD’s forecasted. Make sure to water the plants this evening as they will need it.

Construction: No issues with working on outdoor projects today.

Outdoor Venues: Today will be an excellent day to get out and enjoy the beach or the boardwalk as temps soar into the upper 80’s.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851732/big-cats-and-public-safety-protection-act-ifaw-052013/ 2013-05-20T17:57:31+0000 Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

One of the many idiosyncrasies of humanity is our desire to domesticate otherwise wild animals and keep them around as pets. This has generally worked out well for us in regards to small birds, cats, dogs and fish. There are those, however, who push the limits of this domesticity too far and end up endangering the very animal they claim to care for so much. Last week, US Representatives Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) introduced a bill to specifically protect big cats from the dangers of inexperienced domesticity. The Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act would prohibit the private breeding and possession of big cats in an effort to protect the general public, as well as the cats themselves.

“No matter how many times people try, big cats such as lions, tigers and cheetahs are impossible to domesticate for personal possession,” said Congressman Mckeon, explaining the bill in a press statement.

“This bill is a step forward in protecting the public and will ensure that big cats are taken care of humanely in proper living conditions.”

While there are already laws meant to protect big cats and prohibit breeding and collection by the inexperienced, these laws vary greatly from state to state. The Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act aims to create one federal solution to cover the entire nation. The Public Protection part of the bill is particularly important when considering an incident that took place in October 2011.

One Ohio resident had been keeping several big cats in cages along with bears, monkeys and wolves. Just before committing suicide, Terry Thompson opened up the cages holding all of these animals, turning Zanesville, Ohio into a small zoo. Public safety officers who had not been trained to handle wild animals were then forced to shoot and kill 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, two wolves and a baboon.

Immediately following the incident, Ohio was chided for having some of the most relaxed regulations regarding wild animals in the country.

"Ohio is one of the worst states in terms of lax legislations. We're hoping this will at least be the trigger for some kind of legislation,” said Adam Roberts, executive vice president of Born Free USA in an October 2011 interview with USA Today.

Tim Harrison, Director of Outreach for Animals and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Big Cat Public Safety Consultant said he was one of those who responded to the Ohio incident and “will never forget the look on those officers’ faces that had to shoot and kill lions and tigers in their small community.”

Keeping big cats and other animals as pets not only places the public in danger, it also places the animals themselves in danger and even under the efforts of conservationists. Tigers are said to be the worst off of these big cats, with about 5,000 believed to reside in the United States. The IFAW is now urging all concerned citizens to contact their representatives to co-sponsor the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851559/water-resources-focus-global-meeting-experts-052013/ 2013-05-20T13:27:19+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

This week, in Bonn, Germany – world experts are convening on the dangers posed to Earth’s most vital resource: water.

"The list of human activities and their impact on the water systems of Planet Earth is long and important," said Anik Bhaduri, Executive Officer of the Global Water System Project (GWSP). "We have altered the Earth's climatology and chemistry, its snow cover, permafrost, sea and glacial ice extent and ocean volume—all fundamental elements of the hydrological cycle.”

“We have accelerated major processes like erosion, applied massive quantities of nitrogen that leaks from soil to ground and surface waters and, sometimes, literally siphoned all water from rivers, emptying them for human uses before they reach the ocean,” he continued. “We have diverted vast amounts of freshwater to harness fossil energy, dammed major waterways, and destroyed aquatic ecosystems."

To raise awareness and inform the debate surrounding man’s effect on the Earth, climate experts at the GWSP conference are embracing the term ‘Anthropocene’ as a label for the epoch that heralded human dominance of the planet with the retreat of the glaciers 11,500 years ago.

"The idea of the Anthropocene underscores the point that human activities and their impacts have global significance for the future of all living species -- ours included,” Bhaduri said. “Humans are changing the character of the world water system in significant ways with inadequate knowledge of the system and the consequences of changes being imposed.”

“From a research position, human-water interactions must be viewed as a continuum and a coupled system, requiring interdisciplinary inquiry like that which has characterized the GWSP since its inception,” he added.

In a statement, the GWSP cited a recent study co-authored by University of Colorado water systems expert James Syvitski as a reference guide for humanity’s impact on the global water supply.

In the report, the authors note that an area the size of South America is used to grow the world’s crops and an area the size of Africa is used for raising its livestock. They also indict human activities as the main cause of river floods in developing countries that have killed thousands of people.

According to GWSP co-chair Claudia Pahl-Wostl, global water problems go beyond addressing simple needs like drinking water and sanitation issues.

"Human water security is often achieved in the short term at the expense of the environment with harmful long-term implications,” she said. “The problems are largely caused by governance failure and a lack of systemic thinking in both developed and developing countries.”

"By throwing concrete, pipes, pumps, and chemicals at our water problems, to the tune of a half-trillion dollars a year, we've produced a technological curtain separating clean water flowing from our pipes and the highly-stressed natural waters that sit in the background,” said Charles Vörösmarty, a civil engineering professor at The City College of New York (CCNY) and a founding member of the GWSP. “We treat symptoms of environmental abuse rather than underlying causes. Thus, problems continue to mount in the background, yet the public is largely unaware of this reality or its growing costs."

With 60 special topic sessions, "Water in the Anthropocene" is a capstone event for the global conference. One of the stated goals at the GWSP meeting is to cobble together research for the scientific foundations of a common vision of Earth's water future.

The project is expected to recommended priorities for policy makers with respect to water resources governance and management.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851352/climate-change-overstated-052013/ 2013-05-20T11:02:20+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Based on current trends, the Earth is expected to warm considerably over the coming centuries. However, a new study in Nature Geoscience suggests that the more acute predictions of climate change may be overstated.

In the study, the international team of researchers looked to see how doubling the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the Earth's subsequent response would impact climate over several thousand years, a method known as climate sensitivity.

The analysis used temperatures from the last decade and found that the projected increase would be 1.6 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2007 that the short-term temperature increase would be between 1.8 and 5.4 degrees.

"The hottest of the models in the medium-term, they are actually looking less likely or inconsistent with the data from the last decade alone," co-author Alexander Otto from the University of Oxford told BBC News. "The most extreme projections are looking less likely than before."

Climate scientists have been observing a deceleration in the rise of global air surface temperatures, despite the fact that greenhouse gas emissions have continued to climb. The authors of the report attribute this mitigation of temperature increase to the ocean’s ability to absorb heat – a claim that others dispute.

"There is other research out there pointing out that this storage may be part of a natural cycle that will eventually reverse, either due to El Nino or the so-called Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and therefore may not imply what the authors are suggesting," Steven Sherwood, from Australia’s University of New South Wales, told the BBC News.

The authors of the study suggested that many factors that are still being researched play into the global climate, including the roles of atmospheric aerosols and cloud cover.

"We would expect a single decade to jump around a bit but the overall trend is independent of it, and people should be exactly as concerned as before about what climate change is doing," Otto said.

Otto also told the Financial Times that the study’s findings shouldn’t be viewed as a repudiation of global warming as a general issue.

“Our results indicate nothing of the kind,” he said. “With the current emission trends we are still looking at [temperature rises] significantly higher than 2°C. There is no room for relaxing or for rejoicing or anything like that, unfortunately.”

Last week, it was announced that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 400 parts per million, a record-breaking level for human-inhabited Earth. Policymakers also consider the mark to be the maximum level for remaining within the stated goal of keeping average global temperature from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius.

Despite the rate slowdown, average global temperatures are still much higher than in any year during the 90s, except for the extremely warm year of 1998. The abnormally high temperatures have also been accompanied by the record melting of Arctic summer sea ice and several large storms that experts say have been made more likely by the forces of climate change.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851303/honeybees-trained-sniff-out-landmines-croatia-052013/ 2013-05-20T09:02:53+0000 Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

The US Navy has used dolphins to hunt for undersea mines and dogs have been used to sniff out bombs on land. Now, scientists are incorporating honeybees in the hunt for unexploded landmines in Croatia and possibly other war-ravaged countries in the Balkans.

Bees have a perfect sense of smell and scientists believe that smell might save hundreds of lives if they can be trained to sniff out the odor from unexploded ordnance (UXOs). Tens of thousands of landmines are thought to still be buried in Croatia, following the War of Independence in the 1990s.

Croatia is set to join the European Union on July 1, and while the country is wrapped in beauty, with lush green forests, deep blue mountain lakes, and a breathtaking Adriatic Sea backdrop, the country is also littered with UXOs. An area of about 466 square miles is still littered with mines dating back to the 1990s.

Prof. Nikola Kezic, a honeybee expert from Zagreb University, and his colleagues trained bees to sniff out explosives by mixing their typical sugary food with traces of trinitrotoluene (TNT).

Once Kezic trained the bees to sniff out the TNT, food mixtures were put inside a net tent, along with other food mixtures that did not include the explosive ingredient. Providing confirmation that the training worked, Kezic noted the bees in the tent gathered mainly at the food sources that contained the sugar/TNT solution and not the other non-coated sugar solutions.

“Our basic conclusion is that the bees can clearly detect this target, and we are very satisfied,” Kezic said in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Kezic is also part of a larger campaign, known as “Tiramisu,” which has been sponsored by the EU to detect and dismember landmines in Croatia and abroad.

Kezic said the feeding points that contained the traces of TNT offered a “sugar solution as a reward.” He said it’s not too difficult to train a bee to detect explosives. “You can train a bee, but training their colony of thousands becomes a problem.”

Croatian officials estimate that since the beginning of the Balkan wars in 1991, about 2,500 people have died from land mine explosions. During the four-year war, around 90,000 land mines were placed across the entire country, mostly at random and without any plan or existing maps.

Dijana Plestina, the head of the Croatian government's de-mining bureau, said the suspected devices represent a large obstacle for the country's population and industry, including agriculture and tourism. In the nearly two decades since the end of the war, landmines have taken the lives of 316 people, including 66 de-miners, she said.

"While this exists, we are living in a kind of terror, at least for the people who are living in areas suspected to have mines," she said. "And of course, that is unacceptable. We will not be a country in peace until this problem is solved."

Mirjana Filipovic is haunted by the memory of a land mine blast that blew off her leg and took the life of her boyfriend while they were on a fishing trip in 2004. The accident occurred in a field that was supposedly de-mined.

“As we were returning hand-in-hand, my boyfriend stepped on a mine,” the now 41-year-old Filipovic told BusinessWeek. “It was an awful, deafening explosion ... thousands of shrapnel parts went flying, hundreds ending up in my body. He was found dead several meters away, while I remained in a pool of blood sitting on the ground.”

Filipovic sued the Croatian government, arguing that the area was not clearly marked as a former minefield. The government has admitted guilt in failing to appropriately mark the minefield, but the court has yet to determine financial compensation in the case.

Mateja Janes, a researcher involved with Kezic’s study, was on hand this week in the southern town of Skradin, Croatia, where the bee feed testing project took place. The project has been painstakingly developed over many years though Zagreb’s Agronomy Faculty.

“We have heard that Americans were trying to develop something similar in a secret project, but it seems we've developed it before them," Prof. Janes told the Croatian Times.

"Bees can smell flowers from a distance of [2.8 miles]. Therefore they can smell the explosives at the same distance. They are better at it than dogs," noted Janes. "We hope this is a concept which can be developed and we hope it is something we can export to other countries and become indispensable de-mining tools."

Prof. Janes said the team is planning to use the bees in a real de-mining experiment next month near the southern town of Benkovac. The region was the front line in the war in the 1990s.

Kezic said researchers in the US have in the past used honeybees in bomb-sniffing experiments, but because the scent of TNT evaporates quickly, the Americans didn’t include that in their tests. Also, rats and dogs have been tested previously, but because of their weight, they set off blasts when they encounter them. Bees, on the other hand, could be able to find the bomb without exploding it, allowing experts to detonate them afterward.

However, with bees, some mines could be missed because they are buried too deeply, increasing the risks of deadly explosions.

Kezic said, once the bees have been trained and are scientifically reliable, they will be put to the real test in areas that have already been de-mined to see if they can still sniff out mines that may have been missed. He said the bees will be followed with heat-seeking cameras to track their movements.

"We are not saying that we will discover all the mines on a minefield, but the fact is that it should be checked if a minefield is really de-mined," he told BusinessWeek. "It has been scientifically proven that there are never zero mines on a de-mined field, and that's where bees could come in."]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851062/pavlof-volcano-alaska-spews-lava-ash-falls-city-052013/ 2013-05-20T07:33:36+0000 Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

Alaska’s Pavlof Volcano, which roared back to life on May 13, continues to send ash and steam nearly 20,000 feet into the air, just below the threshold that experts deem becomes a threat to air traffic in the region. Over the weekend, Pavlof also began spewing lava hundreds of feet into the air.

The 8,262-foot-high Pavlof, which is located about 625 miles southeast of Anchorage along the Aleutian Islands, but still sits on mainland Alaska, has been continually monitored closely by officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO). Kristi Wallace, a geologist with the AVO, said the aviation warning level for the eruption remained at code orange, just below the highest threat level: code red.

As satellite images came through, there were occasional instances of the ash cloud reaching 22,000 feet, according to KTUU, Alaska's official news source.

Residents of Sand Point, a city of about 1,000 people on Popof Island 55 miles east of the volcano, found traces of ash on their vehicles Sunday morning as they awoke. Several residents have taken photographs and have sent them to the AVO, noted Wallace.

Wallace said samples of the ash were also being relayed to the AVO and she was “excited to see what those look like.” As it stands the threat is still minimal, but a continued layer of ash particles can pose a significant threat to vehicles, plugging air filters and damaging engines, she said.

"Both reports indicate film on their windshield, but they could see through it — gritty ash," Wallace told Dan Joling of The Associated Press (AP).

The activity at the volcano is on-going, with seismometers picking up continuous tremors. "It's on this really steady rate that's still high," she said.

Chris Waythomas, another geologist working at the AVO, told KTUU that it’s fortunate that relatively “few people live right around the volcano.” For those who do live in surrounding communities, such as Sand Point and Nelson Lagoon, Waythomas said it is unlikely that significant ash fall will occur in these areas. Other nearby communities, such as Cold Bay and King Cove are upwind of the volcano and should typically not see any ash.

Pavlof last erupted in 2007 and continued to do so for 29 days. Past eruptions have lasted weeks, months and even years. Wallace said the 2007 eruption was “short compared to past eruption in historical times.” She warned that Pavlof’s current eruption could last “months.”

The prevailing winds on the peninsula are forecast to change, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). If so, the ash could move northeast away from Sand Point and toward Nelson Lagoon, a small commercial fishing village of 46 people. The NWS warned people to avoid prolonged exposure to ash, especially if they have respiratory problems, such as asthma or COPD. Also, people should protect critical electronic systems and other equipment from ash particle contamination.

There are no solid estimates on what Pavlof will do from here on out; it could recede, continue or magnify.

"For the most part, what we see at Pavlof is exactly what we're seeing now: really low level, ash-poor plumes, continuous activity," Wallace told AP. "But there's always an opportunity for something to spike up to, say, 30,000 feet."

If the ash cloud does go much higher the warning level will likely be raised to red, she said.

Pavlof is not the only volcano in Alaska that has recently reared its ugly head. The AVO is continuing to monitor Cleveland, which sits further southeast on Chuginadak Island in the Aleutians. However, with Cleveland, monitoring can only be done using infrasonic technology, which generally takes about 40 minutes to reach forecast stations.

The AVO last week said that federal budget cuts to volcanic seismic monitoring has affected its ability to keep a close watch on many of Alaska’s 52 volcanic peaks. Nearly 40 percent of the USGS seismic stations around Alaskan volcanoes are in disrepair and need fixing. But without funds in place to repair them, they will continue to collapse.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851058/rna-catalyzed-electron-transfer-on-early-earth-052013/ 2013-05-20T05:53:48+0000 John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

One of the key elements to understanding the proliferation of life on Earth is modeling how electron transfer – the passage of an electron from one element to another – can be catalyzed. But the environmental conditions on Earth some 3 billion years ago were much different than they are today.

For one, there was a distinct lack of molecular oxygen in the atmosphere, because it is readily absorbed and therefore needs to be continually replenished. Not until the process of photosynthesis did molecular oxygen therefore become available.

In this case, though, that turns out to be a good thing because prior to when diatomic oxygen entered the scene the crust of the Earth contained great amounts of soluble iron that would later rust and become banded. It is also at this time where biologists believe that RNA played a much larger role in the evolution of life.

"Our study shows that when RNA teams up with iron in an oxygen-free environment, RNA displays the powerful ability to catalyze single electron transfer, a process involved in the most sophisticated biochemistry, yet previously uncharacterized for RNA," said Loren Williams, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Williams and Chiaolong Hsiao, a Georgia Tech postdoctoral fellow in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, prepared peroxidase assays to detect electron transfer in solutions of RNA with various iron and magnesium ions. Of the 10 different types of RNA that were tested, they found that the two oldest forms - 23S ribosomal RNA and transfer RNA – had the two strongest electron transfer rates. Interestingly, none of the magnesium ions catalyzed electron transfer in any of the RNA types.

"Our findings suggest that the catalytic competence of RNA may have been greater in early Earth conditions than in present conditions, and our experiments may have revived a latent function of RNA," added Williams.

The research was published on May 19, 2013, in the journal Nature Chemistry.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851052/torpedo-found-by-us-navy-dolphins-052013/ 2013-05-20T05:07:37+0000 redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

The US Navy has recovered an exceptionally rare artifact off the coast of Coronado, California – and if that wasn’t enough, the item in question was actually discovered not by humans, but by trained dolphins.

The find was a rare 19th century Howell torpedo, and according to The Huffington Post it is one of only 50 ever manufactured and only one of two still in existence. It was found by dolphins which were reportedly being trained to locate underwater mines and other objects undetectable to technology.

Credit for the discovery was given to dolphins named Ten and Spetz, explained John Johnson of USA Today content partner Newser. The torpedo, which no longer functions due to the large amount of time it spent in the ocean, is currently being cleaned and will soon go on display at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, he added.

A specialist with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific told Johnson that dolphins “naturally possess the most sophisticated sonar known to man,” and the head of the Navy’s marine mammal program added that they had “never found anything like this” before now.

The only previously located Howell torpedo is on display at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington, said Los Angeles Times reporter Tony Perry. The 11-foot-long torpedo was made of brass, spun to 10,000 rpm before launch, traveled at a speed of 25 knots and had a range of 400 yards, he added.

After experimenting with the design for a fly-wheeled torpedo for several years, Lieutenant Commander John A. Howell received authorization from the US Naval Board to build a single torpedo for testing in 1877, John Pentangelo, Curator of the Naval War College Museum, explained back in August 2011.

“As these initial tests utilizing centrifugal pump propulsion were unsuccessful, Howell set out to design an improved model propelled by conventional propellers,” Pentangelo said. “In 1884, after receiving a substantial Congressional appropriation to purchase automobile torpedoes, the Navy Board recommended Howell's newer design.”

“On August 5, 1885 the Navy conducted the first test of three new Howell torpedoes in Newport Harbor,” he added. “Initial testing was unsuccessful (the first two sank) and caused a delay. Once testing resumed in Lake Michigan (the clear water made recovery easier), performance improved and the Howell became the first automobile torpedo issued to the fleet. The Hotchkiss Ordnance Company in Providence manufactured the torpedoes.”

As for the marine mammals that made the discovery, Perry reported that they have been trained at the Navy's Point Loma facility since the 1960s. Military officials tested several different species before settling on two – the bottlenose dolphin and the California sea lion. The dolphins were selected largely because they possess both deep and shallow diving capability, excellent eyesight, and a unique and enigmatic biosonar system, he added.

“To train the dolphins, Navy specialists sink objects of various shapes in rocky and sandy undersea areas where visibility is poor. The shapes mimic those of the mines used by US adversaries,” the Los Angeles Times writer said. “A dolphin is then ordered to dive and search. If it finds something, it is trained to surface and touch the front of the boat with its snout. If it has found nothing, it touches the back of the boat.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112851050/tropical-climate-during-the-last-ice-age-influenced-by-sea-level-052013/ 2013-05-20T04:57:58+0000 [ Watch the Video: What is Global Warming ]

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are looking to events of the past to better understand how rainfall patterns across the Indo-Pacific warm pool – the massive pool of warm water stretching along the equator from Africa to the western Pacific Ocean – will change due to global warming.

As part of their study, Pedro DiNezio of the university’s International Pacific Research Center and Jessica Tierney of the Massachusetts-based non-profit organization investigated well-preserved geological clues (also known as proxies) of precipitation patterns during the last ice age.

They then compared those patterns, which come from a time when the Earth was far cooler than it is currently, and compared them with computer model simulations in order to better explain the patterns which they inferred from those proxies. Their records suggested that during the last ice age (26,000 to 19,000 years ago), conditions were drier throughout the center of the Indo-Pacific warm pool.

“For our research, we compared the climate of the ice age with our recent warmer climate. We analyzed about 100 proxy records of rainfall and salinity stretching from the tropical western Pacific to the western Indian Ocean and eastern Africa.” DiNezio, the lead author, said in a statement. “Rainfall and salinity signals recorded in geological sediments can tell us much about past changes in atmospheric circulation over land and the ocean respectively.”

“Our comparisons show that, as many scientists expected, much of the Indo-Pacific warm pool was drier during this glacial period compared with today. But, counter to some theories, several regions, such as the western Pacific and the western Indian Ocean, especially eastern Africa, were wetter,” added Tierney. Their findings were published in Sunday’s edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

DiNezio and Tierney also compared their findings to a dozen different mathematical climate simulation models, and found that only one reproduced the rainfall patterns suggested by the geological evidence. That model was produced by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in the UK, and the fact that only one in 12 climate models was able to reproduce glacial era rainfall patterns could have widespread implications for simulating tropical climate change, they noted.

“We were taken aback that only one model out of the 12 showed statistical agreement with the proxy-inferred patterns of the rainfall changes. This model, though, agrees well with both the rainfall and salinity indicators – two entirely independent sets of proxy data covering distinct areas of the tropics,” DiNezio said. “The study, moreover, presents a fine benchmark for assessing the ability of climate models to simulate the response of tropical convection to altered land masses and global temperatures.”

“The good news is, the Hadley model combined with the geological evidence show a pathway to improve our ability to simulate and predict tropical rainfall in the future,” added Tierney. “The more we study the mechanisms that governed tropical climate in the past, the better we can predict the climate changes that will affect the billions of people that live in this vast region of the world.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112850886/alien-ant-invasion-crazy-ants-displace-fire-ants-051913/ 2013-05-19T07:17:20+0000 [ Watch the Video: Rise of the Crazy Ants ]

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

Residents of the Gulf Coast are in the midst of an invasion - an ant invasion. An invasive and ecologically dominant species of ant is reportedly displacing the native fire ant in areas throughout the southeastern US.

The invasive species originates from South America and is known as Nylanderia fulva, or tawny crazy ants, according to Geoffrey Mohan of the Los Angeles Times. Normally found in northern Argentina and southern Brazil, they were first discovered in the US near Houston, Texas by a pest control worker in 2002.

Since then, they have spread throughout the state (currently they have been reported in 21 counties) and the entire Gulf Coast region, Ed LeBrun, a researcher at the University of Texas’ invasive species research program, told Mohan. They have been found as far as Florida, and LeBrun said that he believed the species found its way to American through the ports of New Orleans, much like the Argentine ant did in 1891.

“When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back,” LeBrun, who along with his colleagues has detailed the crazy ant invasion in the journal Biological Invasions, said in a statement. Unlike fire ants, which are “in many ways very polite” and “only interact with you if you step on their mound,” the new crazy ants “go everywhere” – invading people’s homes, nesting within walls and crawl spaces, and even damaging electrical equipment.

Plus, the UT researcher said that the crazy ants are much harder to control than fire ants, as they do not share the colonial boundaries that their native counterparts do and will not consume most poison baits used to wipe out fire and mounts. In South America, they are believed to be kept in check by other types of ants and other natural enemies, but in the US there are no such controls for the invasive species.

“They don't sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests,” LeBrun explained. “There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It's very expensive.”

In the US, crazy ants can attain densities of up to 100 times greater than all other ants in a region combined. As a result, they begin monopolizing food sources, starving other species – and on occasion the omnivorous ants will simply attack and kill other ants and arthropods for food, he noted. The overall result, the researchers explain, is a significant reduction in biodiversity that could ultimately impact the entire ecosystem of the region.

“Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant, which is the 300 pound gorilla in Texas ecosystems these days,” LeBrun said. “The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can't tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished… Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112850876/climate-change-impacts-on-amphibians-051913/ 2013-05-19T06:22:41+0000 [ Watch the Video: What is Climate Change ]

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online

A US Geological Survey (USGS) effort to monitor the impact of climate change on amphibians living in the ponds and swamps of the southeastern United States has discovered that changes in rainfall patterns can cause short-term declines in mole salamanders, the agency reported on Friday.

As part of their research, the USGS’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) – established in 2000 by lawmakers as a response to concerns over declines in amphibian populations – set out to determine how droughts and deluges affected larvae living in small isolated ponds in St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

According to the researchers, larval mole salamanders were chosen because of their similarity to the flatwoods salamander, a threatened species that is difficult for experts to study. The similarities between the two species means that whatever affects one type of salamander will likely also affect the other, they explained.

“In the four years of the study, drought consistently decreased salamander occupancy in ponds,” the USGS said. “To support young salamanders, rain has to fill a pond during the breeding season and then the pond has to stay filled long enough for larvae to transform into the next life stage. Therefore, scientists confirmed that drought did indeed cause short-term declines in mole salamanders.”

Their results, which appear in the April 2013 edition of the journal Wetlands, suggest that the flatwoods salamander may experience a similar phenomenon due to climate change, the agency said. The April study is just one of several published recently by ARMI scientists, who are attempting to monitor the status of amphibians while also studying the reasons for their decline throughout the US.

In one study, agency researchers investigated how a range of different amphibian species would respond to changes in rainfall patterns. They took pattern changes predicted by many current climate models – patterns which suggest an increase in deluges alternating with droughts – and reported on each species’ reactions to those changes in a paper published in the March 2013 edition of the journal Biology.

“When USGS scientists reviewed what was known about amphibian responses to rainfall, it turned out that both extremes in rainfall – drought and heavy rainfall events – can decrease the number of amphibians,” the agency explained. “If ponds dry up while aquatic juveniles are developing, survival of the next generation is lowered.  However, if a deluge occurs at that time, nearby pools that often contain fish will be physically connected with the pools containing juvenile amphibians, and the fish will eat the juveniles.”

Also in March, ARMI researchers published a paper in the journal Restoration Ecology examining whether or not habitat conservation could have a positive impact on frog and toad populations. Specifically, they examined whether or not the USDA Conservation Service Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) – a voluntary initiative that allows landowners to protect and restore wetlands on their property – was beneficial to these amphibians.

“To assess the potential benefit of WRP restoration to amphibians, in this case, frogs and toads, USGS scientists surveyed 30 randomly selected WRP sites and 20 nearby agricultural sites in the Mississippi Delta in northwest Mississippi,” the researchers explained. “The scientists found that WRP sites had more kinds of species and was home to more numbers of amphibians than the agricultural sites studied. The restoration of wetland hydrology appeared to provide the most immediate benefit to the animals.”

ARMI’s efforts will continue in the months ahead, the organization noted.

“With multiple studies pointing to the synergistic role of climate change, disease, habitat change, and other factors in amphibian declines, USGS and its partners are continuing their research to provide information which resource managers can use in making decisions that can help arrest or reverse declines,” they said. “Additionally, a new study that provides the first-ever broad assessment of amphibian populations in the United States, and the first quantitative estimate of trends for amphibian populations at a continental scale, will be published later in May.”]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112850870/multitasking-in-a-digital-world-051913/ 2013-05-19T05:39:24+0000 April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

We are all addicted to our cell phones, iPads, Kindle Fires and laptops. Up-to-the-minute updates for email, news, social media and more are just a click or a touch away. All of this multitasking on our various gadgets isn’t necessarily good, according to a new study from Carnegie Mellon, and may actually be making us dumber. Fox News reports that the same devices that keep us plugged in also have obvious drawbacks.

The study analyzed the impact of juggling modern communications on the brain while the person was working. The 136 participants were asked to read a short passage and answer questions about it. They were divided into three groups, the Daily Mail reports, called Control, Interrupted and On High Alert.

The researchers tested the participants twice. On the first run, the Control group was allowed to complete the test without interruption, while the Interrupted and On High Alert groups were warned they might be contacted for further instructions. Both groups were interrupted twice during the test.

For the second test, only the Interrupted group was bothered, while Control and On High Alert were allowed to finish without interruption. On High Alert had been warned again that they might be contacted during the second test, but were not.

The research team expected mistakes during the first test from the Interrupted and On High Alert groups, but were shocked when both groups answered correctly 20 percent less often than the Control group.

The Interrupted group, on the second test, closed the gap to 14 percent, suggesting that people who anticipate an interruption can learn to improve how they deal with it. The research team was surprised, however, to find that the On High Alert group – warned of an interruption that never came – improved 43 percent. They outperformed the Control test takers who had suffered no interruptions.

Dr. Eyal Pe’er, Carnegie Mellon psychologist, believes that this shows the interrupted group learned from their experience the first time and their brains adapted. Helping them to focus more on what they were doing, the On High Alert group was able to marshal the extra brain power to prepare for an interruption.

So, digital multitasking does have an effect on people’s work performance. However, it might be possible for people to train themselves to cope with distractions better, even if they don’t know in advance the interruptions are coming.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112850195/biological-warfare-ladybugs-kill-native-species-051713/ 2013-05-17T14:49:56+0000 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online

German researchers have uncovered another cautionary tale about the importation of a species that quickly becomes an invasive threat. Introduced to Europe and North America for the purpose of controlling pesky greenhouse aphids, the Asian lady beetle escaped into the ecosystem and quickly dominated the local ladybug population.

According to a new report in the journal Science, the aggressive ladybug’s dominance is being assisted by parasites being carried within its own bloodstream that are highly lethal to other species.

"They keep them inactive in their own blood, we don't understand how they do it yet," co-author Heiko Vogel from the Max Planck Institute (MPI CE) for Chemical Ecology told BBC News. "But when the other [ladybugs] start to attack the invader's eggs and larvae, they become active and kill the native ones."

When the German biologists looked at the Asian lady beetle's haemolymph, or blood, under a microscope, they were able to identify the tiny parasites: fungi called microsporidia. While the fungi are present in the eggs and larvae of the invasive species, they appear to exist in a dormant and harmless state.

However, when other ladybugs were exposed to the microsporidians in the lab, the colorful beetles all died within two weeks. Because ladybugs often eat each other’s eggs and larvae, native species are highly vulnerable to parasitic infection in the wild, the researchers said. Some are also suspecting a parasitic wasp that lays its eggs in various ladybug species as a form of transmission.

For the research team, it appears the excitement of the discovery is tempered by the idea that the invasive ladybugs are poised for world domination, albeit on a relatively small scale.

"I don't see any which way to stop them now - it's too late in my opinion," Vogel said. "The fascinating thing is they can survive in such a wide range of temperature zones, and they are starting to pop up in South Africa and South America."

The invasion has become so prevalent in the United Kingdom that scientists there are asking citizens to report sightings of the insects via a specially designed smartphone app.

While the Asian lady beetles are known to devour aphids at a ferocious rate, they have been observed switching to grapes in the absence of their favorite prey. The invasive species biochemical makeup has been known to affect the taste of wine if they become trapped in the production process.

"They go on apples and grapes and that is becoming an increasing problem because of the massive amounts of these beetles,” Vogel said. "The tainting of the wine with a single beetle is not funny!"

One aspects of the beetle that could affect the winemaking process and was initially suspected as the source of its dominance is its immune system. The ladybug’s bodily fluid contains a strong antibiotic compound called harmonine as well as antimicrobial peptides. These antibiotic devices are so powerful that pharmaceutical companies are racing to exploit them for drug development.

Some still suspect the immune system as a contributing force to the ladybug’s dominance, saying that they are less susceptible to the diseases and parasites that affect other species.]]> 0