Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Teenagers and parents often disagree about many things, especially when it comes to tastes in music. While the music of an older generation might not always be relevant to the new school, a recent study from Cornell University says that young adults remember music from their parents’ generation almost as fondly as music from their own adolescence.

This, says lead researcher Lynne Krumhansl, proves music can form an emotional bond which spans generations. She also suggests, however, that the music of bygone eras, particularly the music from the Baby Boomer generation, may truly be of higher quality. The study is published in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

“Music transmitted from generation to generation shapes autobiographical memories, preferences, and emotional responses, a phenomenon we call cascading ‘reminiscence bumps,’” explains Krumhansl, a professor of psychology at Cornell University.

“These new findings point to the impact of music in childhood and likely reflect the prevalence of music in the home environment.”

However, the music listened to during a person’s 20s evokes the most vivid emotional responses. This can easily be observed by the number of bands which cover songs of a certain era about 20 years later. Krumhansl’s research team was surprised, however, to find that songs which were released before a study participant was born also elicited a spike in emotional response.

Krumhansl and her research partner, Justin Zupnick with the University of California, Santa Cruz, asked 62 college-aged volunteers to listen to the top-20 Billboard hits from 1955 to 2009. The volunteers were then asked to describe the emotional response they had to these songs, be it happy, sad or otherwise. The participants also listed which songs conjured up memories for them, including where they were when they heard the song, who they were with and what point in their life they were in when the song was at its peak popularity.

Krumhansl and Zupnick were not surprised to note that the songs with the highest emotional response, or a “reminiscence bump,” were released when the participant was between the ages of 20 and 25 years old. What did take the researchers by surprise, however, was the number of reminiscence bumps which showed up for songs which were popular when the participants’ parents were of the same age.

For instance, many of the songs to which volunteers said they had an emotional reaction were released in the 1980s, when their parents were also experiencing the exciting changes of young adulthood.

While the music released during late adolescence and early adulthood have the most significant impact on our memories, says the research, any music heard during youth can conjure up strong emotional responses.

Even though the participants were college-aged, the researchers noticed a second reminiscence bump for music from the 1960s, the era of their grandparents. While it’s entirely likely the music from this era, including genre defining artists such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, was listened to during a young person’s earliest days, Krumhansl and Zupnick have suggested that the music from this era was simply better than most modern music.

The research team is currently hosting an online survey in an attempt to amass a larger data sample from the public.

“It will be fascinating to see if we can trace intergenerational influences back through more generations, better understand the ‘sixties’ bump,’ and look for effects of the vast changes in music technology that have occurred over the last century,” says Krumhansl.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
A team of researchers, including experts from Uppsala University in Sweden have developed a miniature device that they claim could revolutionize the way in which archaeologists date objects they discover in the field.
The instrument in question is being described as a high-tech microplasma source that is capable of exciting matter in a controlled, efficient way. While the device, which is detailed in a paper appearing in the Journal of Applied Physics, could be used in a wide range of applications in harsh environments, the authors claim that it could drastically change the study of artifacts.
The device – which researchers from the university’s Ångström Space Technology Centre (ÅSTC) describe as “a microplasma source based on a stripline split-ring resonator is presented and evaluated in a basic optogalvanic spectrometer” – offers several advantages, including electromagnetic compatibility, an integrated fluidic system, and Langmuir probes for plasma diagnostics.
Scientists at ÅSTC report that they often have to work with several different types of microtechnology or nanotechnology for use in space and other harsh environments. Those devices include scientific instruments, imaging, communication hardware, vehicles and spacecraft, propulsion devices, and thermal management.
“Putting miniaturized hardware into orbit or thousands of meters underground is always technically easier and less expensive, but using fundamentally different technology for demanding applications is often met with skepticism,” said ÅSTC director Greger Thornell. “So we need to also compete in terms of performance and reliability.”
Size limitation is “always a huge challenge,” he and his colleagues noted. However, they also said that they are used to working with microrocketry and localized phenomenon in miniature devices like sensors and actuators. Those kinds of phenomena can involve extremely high temperature and/or pressure, as well as intense plasma.
“In this case, the localization, or rather concentration, means that the device itself becomes handy and power-efficient, and also that it consumes small sample amounts, which widens the range of applications far beyond the requirement of simply lightweight or portable instruments,” Thornell said.
Archaeology is being investigated as a possible primary application of their newly-developed device in order to help determine the distribution of carbon isotopes in organic samples. As senior researcher Anders Persson of Linköping University explained, that information is critical for archaeologists, but obtaining the data can also be a difficult and time-consuming process.
“Their plasma source may be used to develop an instrument for field archaeologists, which would allow them to perform measurements while out in the field; this in turn may revolutionize archaeology by diversifying the amount of information available during the decision-making process of an excavation,” the American Institute of Physics (AIP) said in a statement. They also emphasized that the research was “still an early study to evaluate the use of this type of plasma source in an optogalvanic spectroscopy setup.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

You’ve probably heard the phrase “mother knows best,” but may not have realized that it applies to chimpanzees as well as humans.

According to a new study in the journal Animal Cognition, orphaned chimps have less social success than chimps that were raised by their mother.

“Orphaned chimpanzees had more difficulties to successfully coordinate their social play interactions,” said co-author Edwin van Leeuwen, a cognitive anthropologist from the Max Planck Institute in Germany. “Since social play comprises a complex context in which signals about intentions need to be communicated, it seems that orphaned chimpanzees have missed out on valuable lessons from their mothers.”

The study was based on observation of eight orphaned and nine mother-reared juvenile chimpanzees at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia. The study researchers watched as orphaned chimps often engaged in social play, but their play sessions were much shorter and resulted in hostility more frequently.

Orphaned chimpanzees in the wildlife trust are initially cared for by humans. Once they became strong enough – typically around one or two years of age – the chimps were placed in an orphan chimp group.

“The chimps in the study were between four and nine years old, so they have kind of been raising each other,” explained van Leeuwen. Both groups of chimps were similar in age and sex, the study said.

The researchers said they had expected the orphaned chimpanzees to be less social than the mother-reared chimpanzees based on previous research. However, the orphaned chimpanzees readily engaged in social play, in fact they did so more frequently than the mother-reared juveniles, albeit for briefer periods of time.

However, the social play of the orphaned chimps resulted more frequently in aggression than social play of their peers that were raised by their mother.

“Although the orphaned chimps were motivated to play,” Van Leeuwen said, “it seems that they were less able to coordinate their play bouts and prevent them from resulting in aggression.”

The researchers said chimpanzee mothers seem to play a key role in the social development of their offspring, much like humans.

“Mothers seem to prepare their offspring for challenges that are very important for successful group-living,” Van Leeuwen said. “For orphans, however, the presence of other adult role models may alternatively be beneficial for boosting social competence, which is an important consideration to entertain for sanctuaries dealing with integrations of chimpanzees.”

Chimpanzees typically live in social groups called communities. Within each community, a definite social hierarchy is determined by the rank of an individual and the power the individual has on others. Male chimpanzees can move up in rank by forming alliances with others who will support their ambitions for greater power.

Female chimpanzees also have a ranking system, which is affected by the position of a female individual within a community. In some chimpanzee groups, young females may gain their high status from a high-ranking mother. Females will also use alliances to dominate lower-ranking peers. In contrast to males that seek status for mating purposes, females look to acquire dominant status for better access to resources such as food.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A natural light display seen from high altitude locations in the Northern Hemisphere, the aurora borealis has fascinated people for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and a new photography-based technique has allowed researchers to determine the exact height of the phenomenon.

According to a new report in Annales Geophysicae, a journal of the European Geosciences Union, Japanese researchers used two digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras set about five miles apart to create three-dimensional images of the Northern Lights. These images could then be used to calculate the altitude where electrons in the atmosphere generate the light that results in the aurora.

“We had initial success when we projected the digital SLR images at a planetarium and showed that the aurora could be seen in 3D. It was very beautiful, and I became confident that it should be possible to calculate the emission altitude using these images,” said Ryuho Kataoka, from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Japan.

The distance between our eyes allows us to perceive the world around us in three dimensions. When we look at an object, the images captured by the left and right eyes are slightly different. However, our brain combines these images to create the perception of depth. Because the distance between our eyes is only a couple of inches, this depth perception works for objects that are relatively close.

Since the aurora occurs between about 56 and 250 miles above the ground, a much larger separation was necessary to generate the 3D image. Therefore, the Japanese research team used two cameras, replicating the left and right eyes, separated by about five miles in an area of Alaska. Using fisheye lenses and GPS units, the two cameras captured two concurrent images that were later combined to create a 3D photograph of the phenomenon and measure the emission altitude.

“Using the parallax of the left-eye and the right-eye images, we can calculate the distance to the aurora using a [triangulation] method that is similar to the way the human brain comprehends the distance to an object,” explains Kataoka. Parallax is the disparity in the perceptible position of an object when seen at different angles.

While scientists have created altitude maps of the aurora before, this is the first time the emission height of the Northern Lights has been determined by using digital SLR cameras. The research team noted that the altitude maps they generated matched with previous observations.

Kataoka noted that the technique is relatively inexpensive and allows scientists to determine the altitude of various elements in the aurora. Additionally, the technique opens up the possibility for citizen scientists to get involved with researching the polar phenomenon.

“Commercially available GPS units for digital SLR cameras have become popular and relatively inexpensive, and it is easy and very useful for photographers to record the accurate time and position in photographic files. I am thinking of developing a website with a submission system to collect many interesting photographs from night-sky photographers over the world via the internet,” Kataoka said.

[ Watch the Video: Pacific Ocean Home To World’s Largest Volcano ]

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Researchers, led by University of Houston professor William Sager, have been able to confirm the existence of the world’s largest single volcano at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, according to an upcoming report in Nature Geoscience.

Called Tamu Massif, the volcano covers an area about the size of the British Isles. Without a similar volcano here on Earth, scientists are comparing to it giant volcanoes on Mars and ranking it among the biggest known in the Solar System.

“Tamu Massif is the biggest single shield volcano ever discovered on Earth,” Sager said. “There may be larger volcanoes, because there are bigger igneous features out there such as the Ontong Java Plateau, but we don’t know if these features are one volcano or complexes of volcanoes.”

The volcano sits 1,000 miles east of Japan and is the largest feature of Shatsky Rise, an underwater mountain range created 130 to 145 million years ago by the eruptions of numerous underwater volcanoes. Until this latest report, scientists hadn’t been able to confirm whether Tamu Massif was a single volcano or was comprised of several eruption points.

Using core samples taken from the ocean floor, the authors have been able to confirm that the basalt rock constituting Tamu Massif did in fact come from a single source. The samples were taken from several locations on Tamu Massif, and seismic data from a series of scientific cruises over the area showed the structure of the volcano, confirming that the lava flowed hundreds of miles downhill into adjacent basins on the ocean floor.

The massive volcano is also highly unique because of its low, broad shape. The volcano’s flatness suggests that its lava flowed great distances compared to most other volcanoes on the planet. The seafloor is sprinkled with thousands of underwater volcanoes that are much smaller and steeper than Tamu Massif.

“It’s not high, but very wide, so the flank slopes are very gradual,” Sager said. “In fact, if you were standing on its flank, you would have trouble telling which way is downhill.”

“We know that it is a single immense volcano constructed from massive lava flows that emanated from the center of the volcano to form a broad, shield-like shape,” he added. “Before now, we didn’t know this because oceanic plateaus are huge features hidden beneath the sea. They have found a good place to hide.”

Tamu Massif covers about 120,000 square miles, much larger that Hawaii’s Mauna Loa – the largest active volcano on Earth – which covers about 2,000 square miles. A much better analog would be Olympus Mons on the planet Mars, which is about 25 percent bigger by volume than Tamu Massif.

The research team estimated Tamu Massif’s age at around 145 million years old. Sitting about 6,500 feet below the ocean surface, the researchers said the volcano became dormant within a few million years after being formed.

“It’s shape is different from any other sub-marine volcano found on Earth, and it’s very possible it can give us some clues about how massive volcanoes can form,” Sager said. “An immense amount of magma came from the center, and this magma had to have come from the Earth’s mantle. So this is important information for geologists trying to understand how the Earth’s interior works.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

In late 2002, the SARS epidemic ripped through Southeast Asia and rattled worldwide confidence in medical technology’s capacity to prevent pandemics like those that have plagued human populations throughout history.

It was later discovered that the novel virus had spread to humans from mammals in Southeast Asia. By 2003, scientists had isolated the SARS virus from meat samples taken from a local market in Guangdong, China.

A new study published in the journal mBio attempts to get out in front of the next pandemic by estimating the total number of unknown diseases that could be found in mammals and the costs associated with identifying those viruses. Based on the work of a large international team, the report stated that there are at least 320,000 viruses in mammals awaiting discovery and collecting evidence of these viruses would cost approximately $6.3 billion.

“Historically, our whole approach to discovery has been altogether too random,” said lead author Simon Anthony, a scientist at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University. “What we currently know about viruses is very much biased towards those that have already spilled over into humans or animals and emerged as diseases. But the pool of all viruses in wildlife, including many potential threats to humans, is actually much deeper.”

“A more systematic, multidisciplinary, and One Health framework is needed if we are to understand what drives and controls viral diversity and following that, what causes viruses to emerge as disease-causing pathogens,” he added.

“For decades, we’ve faced the threat of future pandemics without knowing how many viruses are lurking in the environment, in wildlife, waiting to emerge. Finally we have a breakthrough — there aren’t millions of unknown virus, just a few hundred thousand, and given the technology we have it’s possible that in my lifetime, we’ll know the identity of every unknown virus on the planet,” said co-author Peter Daszak, president of the international conservation organization EcoHealth Alliance.

In the study, researchers collected almost 1,900 biological samples from flying fox bats in Bangladesh, which were captured and released. Through genetic analysis, researchers were able to identify 55 viruses in nine different families. Only five of these viruses were previously known and another 50 were newly discovered.

The research team then adapted an ecological technique to estimate that there should be another three viruses that could not be detected in the samples – increasing the estimate of total viruses in the flying fox to 58. When extrapolated to the more than 5,400 known mammals, researchers determined that there are a total of at least 320,000 unknown mammalian viruses.

The team also repeated the exercise for cost, to determine a total amount needed of $6.3 billion for collecting evidence of all these unknown viruses. They showed that limiting discovery to a more manageable 85 percent of estimated viral diversity would reduce the cost to $1.4 billion.

“By contrast, the economic impact of the SARS pandemic is calculated to be $16 billion,” Anthony said. “We’re not saying that this undertaking would prevent another outbreak like SARS. Nonetheless, what we learn from exploring global viral diversity could mitigate outbreaks by facilitating better surveillance and rapid diagnostic testing.”

“If we know what’s out there, we’ll be a lot better prepared when a virus jumps over into a human population,” he concluded.

[ Watch the Video: Watch Out For Holes, You May Have Trypophobia ]

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

While it’s a widely recognized condition online, it has yet to be officially recognized by medical officials. Trypophobia is described by psychologists Geoff Cole and Arnold Wilkins as the fear of small clusters of holes, such as those seen in pods of lotus flowers, milk foam bubbles on a latte, or the spots on a frog’s back. According to those who report having trypophobia, seeing objects such as sponges or any other object with asymmetrical shapes can leave them with a crawling feeling on their skin. Some even feel as if their pores are expanding and report an uncontrollable itchiness.

Now Cole and Wilkins, both with the University of Essex, say they’ve come one step closer to understanding the fear and, hopefully, to get it officially recognized by the medical community. Their new research was published recently in the journal Association for Psychological Science.

According to Cole, the origin of this unusual phobia may be lodged somewhere in our evolutionary history, causing some to believe that they’re seeing a dangerous creature when they see these clusters. Cole and Wilkins have long been leading the charge in trypophobia research, and a recent meeting with a sufferer lead them to begin looking for an ancient evolutionary response that might explain the condition.

The unnamed sufferer of trypophobia reported having an episode — or a period of uneasiness, queasiness or itchiness — after seeing a picture of a blue-ringed octopus. This cephalopod is one of the most poisonous animals in the world, leading the researchers to wonder if the human brain at some point made a deep-seated evolutionary connection between small holes and poisonous animals.

Cole and Wilkins gathered and analyzed images of other poisonous animals with trypophobic shapes and found that they have the same midrange spatial frequencies as other trypophobic triggers. In other words, pictures of these dangerous creatures could cause some who experience this fear to have similar negative responses to these images as they do images of bubbles in pancake batter.

“We think that everyone has trypophobic tendencies even though they may not be aware of it,” said Cole in a statement discussing their new study. After all, if this reaction is the result of evolutionary conditioning, then it would stand to reason that all humans might have some proclivity towards trypophobic images.

“We found that people who don’t have the phobia still rate trypophobic images as less comfortable to look at than other images.”

Cole has previously claimed as many as 16 percent of the people he’s studied have had negative reactions to typographic images, leading him to refer to the condition as “the most common phobia you’ve never heard of.” A Facebook page dedicated to the condition is filled with people who say they thought they were crazy to have such negative reactions to a collection of holes.

While some report feeling nauseated after seeing asymmetrical images or different shaped holes, some say they have the worst reaction to an image which frequently appears in trypophobia research: A video of baby frogs swimming out of holes in their mother’s back.

Those curious about the condition can take a test online which involves watching a video of increasingly disturbing images. If at any point the viewer has the inclination to itch, they may be having a trypophobic reaction.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Scientists in Uruguay have announced the sequencing of the Tannat grape, which is used in making red wines that have the largest concentration of tannins — an anti-oxidant that combats cell aging.

Uruguayan researchers from the United Nations University who were involved in the sequencing said their results could lead to the formulation of healthier red wines.

“A wine made with Tannat has twice the tannins of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Pinot Noir,” said Francisco Carrau, a vintner and chemistry professor at the UNU. “Sequencing the grape’s genome will allow vintners to protect a valuable niche in the world’s $300 billion wine industry.”

Due to their proven ability to lower blood pressure, cut cholesterol and boost healthy blood clotting, wines made from the Tannat grape are said to be the healthiest in the world.

The same research team is also looking into how soil conditions, temperature, climate, altitude and other environmental factors – collectively known as terroir – affect grape genetics with respect to wine’s aromas and color.

“Winemaking has always been an art. Today it is also a science,” Carrau said. “If we can determine through biotechnology the factors that determine a wine’s aroma and color, we can potentially apply that information to create more pleasing and valuable products.”

“Such information can also valuably guide decisions about where to plant new vines, which typically produce their first fruit after five years and their best fruit in about a decade,” he added. “Having the ability to predict successful vineyard location holds enormous value.”

Tannat is considered to be the national grape of Uruguay. The nation is the fourth largest wine producer in South America with about 21,000 acres of vineyards. More than one third of the grapes grown in Uruguay are Tannat, which are used to produce the country’s signature wines.

As Uruguay’s wine industry continues to grow, the nation’s vintners have been expanding the production of Tannat grapes. The country currently exports approximately 17 percent of its production. Revenues from wine exports have grown about 500 percent since 2004.

Specializing in Tannat or Tannat blends, vineyards in Uruguay have begun to distinguish between older vines descended from imported European varieties and new clones proliferating today. The newer vines are inclined to produce wines with higher alcohol levels but less acidity. These wines also exhibit more complex fruit characteristics.

“Discovering in more detail the health-promoting compound in the Tannat grape requires us to continue work on its genome,” Carrau said. “I suspect that in future, such information will help the variety become far better known around the world.”

Tannat grapes were imported into the United States during the late 19th century. However, they were largely ignored until the last decade or so when South America Tannats began to receive international acclaim.

Californian vintners began embracing the grape during the 1990s, but today they can be found in Oregon, Arizona, Virginia and Texas. In 2002, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms approved a petition to add Tannat to the list of grapes that could be made into a varietal wine.

[ Watch the Video: New Walking Shark Species Identified ]

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Scientists from Conservation International have discovered a new species of shark living in the waters of Indonesia. Unlike other sharks, however, this species has an unusual way of getting around; it walks.

This ambulating aquatic creature uses its fins to gently glide across the sea floor on its belly as it searches for food and a place to rest. The newly discovered shark, called the epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium halmahera), is one of nine walking sharks found all over the world.

The striped shark can grow up to 30 inches long, is harmless to humans, and so far has only been seen in the waters off the Indonesian island of Halmahera. In a Conservation International blog, Dr. Mark Erdmann says this discovery is important to help the Asian Island work to protect the habitat of its native sharks against fisheries that export dried shark fins to points all over the world.

According to Discovery News, females of the species lay their eggs underneath coral ledges in these waters. The baby sharks are then born into a world that they’ll mostly swim around slowly, using their fins as legs to search the seafloor for crustaceans and other kinds of food. So far the H. halmahera is believed to have similar environment preferences as its eight cousins, sticking to shallower waters not far from home. Six of the walking shark species prefer Indonesian waters, as well. A video highlights how these fish move around in their habitat.

“This is the third walking shark species to be described from eastern Indonesia in the past six years, which highlights our tremendous shark and ray biodiversity,” explained Indonesian Institute of Sciences’ shark expert Fahmi in an interview with The Guardian.

“We now know that six of the nine known walking shark species occur in Indonesian waters, and these animals are divers’ favorites with excellent potential to help grow our marine tourism industry.”

Fahmi and his colleague Dharmadi at the Indonesian Ministry of Fisheries will soon publish a guide that will identify the nearly 220 shark species that live in and around the Island’s waters.

The discovery of the H. halmahera, in partnership with other efforts to increase awareness and tourism in Indonesia, is seen as a way to protect each of the shark species in the area. For decades the Island held the title as the world’s largest exporter of dried shark fins.

These fins are a delicacy in China and other parts of the world. They’re used to make shark fin soup, a dish that is flavored with chicken or some other kind of stock. Though the fins don’t add much in the way of flavor, they add texture and, according to some, important health benefits. Some say eating the soup can increase one’s appetite and improve bone and lung health. Many in the Far East continue to eat the soup at important events and gatherings such as weddings.

Dr. Erdmann now says that an increased interest in scuba diving could help protect the walking shark and decrease the number of fins exported from the Island.

“As Indonesia’s economy has matured, the past decade has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Indonesians taking up scuba diving,” said Dr. Erdmann. “This has dramatically increased awareness of the declines in shark and ray populations while simultaneously creating a large ‘fan base’ for charismatic species like manta rays and whale sharks.”

Conservation International will also use the walking shark as its mascot for its new marine conservation education program and act as a local ambassador for all other local species in Halmahera.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Tyrannosaurus rex is arguably the most famous of all the dinosaurs, but apparently the iconic creature was very nearly known by another name.

“When the first fossilized remains of the creature were found, the 29-foot carnivore was initially given a moniker that was rather more of a mouthful: Dynamosaurus imperiosus,” explained Richard Gray, Science Correspondent with The Telegraph. “The full story has emerged as the first remains have been removed from storage at the Natural History Museum in London, where they are about to go on show for the first time in decades.”

The first partial skeleton of what we now know as the T. rex was reportedly recovered by Barnum Brown, assistant curator of the American Museum of Natural History, in Wyoming in 1905. The museum’s dinosaur expert, Henry Fairfield Osborn, actually gave the dinosaur its original name in the same paper which the T. rex was first described in. In fact, the two creatures were discussed just a few pages apart from one another.

Osborn eventually realized the two skeletons actually belonged to the same creature, and that the mistake was due in part to fossils from the Dynamosaurus skeleton becoming intermingled with the remains of a second dinosaur. He decided to drop the Dynamosaurus name and called the carnivorous creature Tyrannosaurus rex, since that had been the name given to the more complete of the two skeletons, The Telegraph said.

The name D. imperiosus was a combination of Latin and ancient Greek and meant “dynamic imperial reptile,” Gray said. The second specimen, which was located by Brown two years later in Montana, was dubbed T. rex – also a combination of Greek and Latin, and a name which means “terrible lizard king.” Typically, the first specimen discovered is the one which determines the name for the species, but due to “a publishing quirk,” the paper describing the T. rex skeleton actually appeared first, making that the official name, he added.

On an interesting note, the original Dynamosaurus material is now residing at London’s Natural History Museum, making it the only T. rex fossil to exist outside of the United States, according to Gray. It had been acquired by the museum in the 1960s.

“This was the first ever T. rex found, which makes it very important historically. Up until that point we only had a few fragments of big carnivorous predators from that time and it gave us our first insight into what they looked like,” Dr. Paul Barrett, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum, told Gray. As for the name change, he said, “It is perhaps just as well as although Dynamosaurus imperiosus is another grand sounding name, it doesn’t trip off the tongue as nicely as Tyrannosaurus rex.”

[ Watch the Video: Goldfish Have An Ear For Music ]

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Your children might not be able to tell the difference between different pieces of classical music, but your pet goldfish can, according to researchers from Keio University in Japan.

As the Daily Mail reported, scientists from the Tokyo institution’s Department of Psychology wrote the fish were able to distinguish between the two famous composers 75 percent of the time.

Study authors Kazutaka Shinozuka, Haruka Ono, Shigeru Watanabe played Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and Rite of Spring by 20th century Russian composer Igor Stravinsky for the goldfish, Telegraph Science Correspondent Richard Gray explained.

They then trained four of them to bite on a red bead after hearing one piece, but not after hearing the other, and they would be rewarded with a food pellet for performing the task correctly.

“We developed an apparatus for measuring spontaneous sound preference in goldfish,” the authors wrote in a paper published in the October edition of the journal Behavioural Processes. “Music or noise stimuli were presented depending on the subject’s position in the aquarium, and the time spent in each area was measured. The results indicated that the goldfish did not show consistent preferences for music, although they showed significant avoidance of noise stimuli. These results suggest that music has discriminative but not reinforcing stimulus properties in goldfish.”

“We can conclude that goldfish discriminate between Bach’s and Stravinsky’s music,” Dr. Kazutaka Shinozuka, who led the research, told Gray. “Of course music is artificial stimuli made by humans, so music itself does not have specific meaning for goldfish. But music consists of complex acoustic features. Ability to discriminate such complex auditory stimuli might be beneficial for fish in an evolutionary sense.”

After the goldfish were trained, they were divided into two different groups and trained to bite on the bead after hearing 20-second clips of either Bach or Stravinsky. The music was muted for varying amounts of time between each clip, The Telegraph explained, meaning the fish did not consistently hear the same music at the same times. Over the course of three sessions, the fish correctly distinguished between the two composers three-quarters of the time – however, it reportedly took the researchers over 100 training sessions to achieve those results.

“The scientists also tested to see whether the fish would recognize other pieces by the same composers that they had never heard before. However found they did not appear to recognize them and instead the fish swam around randomly,” the Daily Mail said. “In another experiment involving six different goldfish, the scientists found the animals did not appear to show any strong preference for a particular type of music.”

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
As meteorological science advances, we have all become used to long-term weather forecasts, such as predicting what the coming winter might bring. A new study from the University of Washington and federal scientists, however, has developed the first long-term forecast of conditions that matter for Pacific Northwest fisheries.
“Being able to predict future phytoplankton blooms, ocean temperatures and low-oxygen events could help fisheries managers,” said Samantha Siedlecki, a research scientist at the UW-based Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean.
“This is an experiment to produce the first seasonal prediction system for the ocean ecosystem. We are excited about the initial results, but there is more to learn and explore about this tool – not only in terms of the science, but also in terms of its application,” she said.
The prototype was launched in January of this year. When it immediately predicted low oxygen this summer off the Olympic coast, people scoffed. However, some skeptics began to take the new tool more seriously when an unusual low-oxygen patch developed off the Washington coast in July. The prototype has predicted the low-oxygen trend will continue, becoming worse in the coming months.
“We’re taking the global climate model simulations and applying them to our coastal waters,” said Nick Bond, a UW research meteorologist and Washington’s state climatologist. “What’s cutting edge is how the tool connects the ocean chemistry and biology.”
Typically, Bond’s research concerns predicting ocean conditions decades in advance. The forecasts he distributes in his job as state climatologist, however, are quarterly weather predictions. He decided to combine the two with this project, creating a season approach to marine forecasts.
“Simply knowing if things are likely to get better, or worse, or stay the same, would be really useful,” said collaborator Phil Levin, a biologist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
For example, if fisheries had early warning of negative trends, it could help them set quotas.
“Once you overharvest, a lot of regulations kick in,” Levin said. “By avoiding overfishing you don’t get penalized, you keep the stock healthier and you’re able to maintain fishing at a sustainable level.”
The new tool is called the JISAO Seasonal Coastal Ocean Prediction of the Ecosystem, which the scientist dubbed J-SCOPE. J-SCOPE is still in the testing stages and it remains to be seen whether the initial low-oxygen prediction was beginner’s luck or proof it can predict regions where strong phytoplankton blooms will end up causing low-oxygen conditions.
Global climate models that can predict elements of the weather up to nine months in advance are used by J-SCOPE, which feeds those results into a regional coastal ocean model – created by the UW Coastal Modeling Group. This ocean model simulates the intricate subsea canyons, shelf breaks and river plumes of the Pacific Northwest coastline. This is combined with a new UW oxygen model developed by Siedlecki that calculates where currents and chemistry promote the growth of marine plants, or phytoplankton, and where those plants will decompose and, in turn, affect oxygen levels and other properties of the ocean water.
All of these calculations allow J-SCOPE to create a nine month forecast for Washington and Oregon sea surface temperatures, oxygen at various depths, acidity, and chlorophyll, a measure of the marine plants that feed most fish. This fall, the researchers plan to add sardine habitat maps. The team eventually hopes to publish forecasts specific to other fish, such as tuna and salmon.
The model was fine-tuned by comparing its results for past seasons to actual measurements collected by the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS), a UW based group that hosts the forecasts as a forward-looking complement to its growing archive of Pacific Northwest ocean observations.
The new tool should be able to predict elements of the ocean ecosystem up to six months in advance, according to Siedlecki’s analyses. If the forecasts prove as reliable as the researchers hope, they could become part of a new management approach that requires knowing and predicting how different parts of the ocean ecosystem interact.
“The climate predictions have gotten to the point where they have six-month predictability globally, and the physics of the regional model and observational network are at the point where we’re able to do this project,” Siedlecki said. The project will be presented to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the regulatory body for West Coast fisheries, this year. The researchers will work with NANOOS to reach tribal, state, and local fisheries managers.