scientist
On September 29, 2006, 14 United States Senators cosigned a letter to the NASA Inspector General to request a formal investigation into allegations of "political interference" with the work of scientists at NASA.From: Investigative Summary Regarding Allegations that NASA Suppressed Climate Change Science and Denied Media Access to Dr. James E. Hansen, A NASA Scientist
If you are trying to do your bit for sustainability and save water by taking shorter showers, then a new report on sustainability reveals for the first time that there are more effective ways that our everyday choices can have a positive impact on the environment.
A new system that treats, filters and conserves water in fresh-water fish tanks has been developed by an Agricultural Research Service scientist and is being used at an ARS research facility in West Virginia. The new system recirculates up to 90 percent of the water in two fish culture bays at the ARS National Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture (NCCCWA) in Leetown, W.V.
ARS environmental engineer Brian Brazil custom-designed the system to support multiple rearing tanks, which are connected to a centralized water filtration and treatment system similar to that constructed by the Conservation Fund's Fresh Water Institute. The rainbow trout raised at the Leetown center are part of a selective breeding program and require a continuous supply of high-quality water.
In a project that already has benefited an important field of biomedical research, scientists have deciphered the genomes of two closely related strains of Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus whose importance as a human pathogen has risen in parallel with the HIV/AIDS worldwide epidemic and the increased use of immunosuppressive therapies. The study, posted online January 13 in Science Express, revealed differences in the virulence strategies used by C. neoformans compared to other pathogenic fungi. Researchers also examined the genetic determinants of its pathogenicity by comparing the genomes of two closely related strains of significantly different virulence.
After a long day on the job, tired minds and sore feet look forward to a long night of rejuvenating rest. A new study finds that nocturnal rest can do a world of good for your hands and wrists too, especially if you are one of the millions of American workers who are just beginning to feel the common pain and discomfort linked to carpal tunnel syndrome. The findings, made by a team of researchers with the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, show that night-time splinting can effectively improve hand and wrist discomfort for active workers with early symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.
A simple stroll after a full day of field research near a high Andean glacier in Peru led glaciologist Lonnie Thompson to discover a bed of previously hidden plants that date back at least 50,000 years. And while that discovery is novel enough to please any scientist, it's the implication that those perfectly preserved plants may suggest that really excites him. Thompson, a professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University and a world-class glaciologist, has made nearly annual pilgrimages to Peru's Quelccaya ice cap to monitor its slow demise, a probably victim of recent global climate change.
Scientists have discovered evidence of microbial activity in a rock glacier high above tree line in the Rocky Mountains, a barren environment previously thought to be devoid of life. Found in an intermittent stream draining from the glacier, the evidence includes traces of dissolved organic material and high levels of nitrates, said Mark Williams, a scientist at Colorado University (CU)-Boulder. The high nitrate levels are believed to be a result of microbes metabolizing nitrogen within the glacier, said CU-Boulder graduate student Meredith Knauf.
Dry dust reacts with air pollutants to form dewy particles whose sunlight-reflecting and cloud-altering properties are unaccounted for in atmospheric models. ''Calcite-containing dust particles blow into the air and encounter gaseous nitric acid in polluted air from factories to form an entirely new particle of calcium nitrate,'' said Alexander Laskin, a senior research scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.
Researchers report creating a small swatch of heart tissue that displays many of the hallmarks of mature cardiac tissue, including regular contractions. ''We have been trying to engineer a patch of tissue that has the same properties as native heart tissue, or myocardium, that could be attached over injured myocardium... Think of it as a patch for a broken heart.''
You may not yet have heard of chylomicrons, but a nutritional scientist at the University of Alberta believes you will soon--especially if you care about preventing a stroke or heart attack. Dr. Spencer Proctor says chylomicrons gather on arterial walls and may be as dangerous or more dangerous than low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in causing strokes and heart attacks. Chylomicrons are metabolized balls of fat and cholesterol that enter the blood stream through the intestines after a meal--usually within about 15 minutes after your last bite.
Research conducted by a Cardiff University astronomy scientist suggests that a comet colliding with Earth is actually more likely than was previously believed. Researchers believe that some comets are not visible using current astronomical scanning equipment. They argue that if this is the case, international programmes designed to detect near-Earth asteroids, and ways to reduce the worst effects of them colliding with Earth may need to be urgently reviewed.
A Florida scientist has grown a living ''brain'' that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network. The ''brain'' -- a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat's brain and cultured inside a glass dish -- gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene. As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
An award-winning system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to clean up perchlorate pollution is now also helping scientists determine whether the contamination is natural or man-made. This latter application could be instrumental in tracking environmental perchlorate, finding its source and resolving resulting liability issues, said ORNL scientist Baohua Gu, who headed development of the treatment system. Perchlorate, or ClO4-, disrupts the thyroid gland that regulates metabolism in adults and physical development in children and is increasingly being found in soil and water. It is used to make solid rocket propellant and explosives but also occurs naturally, as in nitrate soils from Chile used to make fertilizers, making the source sometimes difficult to trace.
Men and women with mental disorders have higher odds of being diagnosed with brain tumors and lung cancer and they develop these cancers at younger ages than individuals without mental illness according to a study published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. ''This work is a piece in the larger puzzle of understanding the relationships between mental and physical health,'' said Caroline Carney, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of psychiatry and medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. Dr. Carney is the first author of the study which looked at insurance claims data from over seven hundred thousand adults between the ages of 18 and 64 living in Iowa and South Dakota.
Scientists have devised a method for determining whether sulfate salts can account for evidence of water on Mars. The work could pave the way to a better understanding of the martian environment and the history of water on Mars. In a paper published in today's issue of the scientific journal Nature, a team of researchers lead by Los Alamos scientist David Vaniman describe the exposure of magnesium sulfate salts to various temperature, pressure and humidity conditions in order to understand their possible hydration states under martian surface conditions.
