Maybe it’s just that we’re enured to so many dire climate change tocsins, or have read about methane clathrates plenty already. Or maybe this doomsday scenario is just too hypothetical. But a rather dramatic paper in Nature, boosted by a press release from the University of California, Riverside, didn’t get much of a rise this week. The gist is that a research team not only believes it has found the geologic evidence to back ideas of monster outbursts of frozen methane hundreds of millions of years ago that turned Earth from a snowball to a sauna, but thinks a smaller but still serious replay is plausible in our or our children’s lifetimes. The scenario imagines ice sheets retracting, unburdening and warming methane hydrate deposits, and BURP. There goes any hope for a gentle transition to a warmer climate.

A few outlets went with it:

Wired News Alexis Madrigal puts in the lede a worst-case scenario that could melt virtually all terrestrial ice in a generation ; AFP ; Riverside Press-Enterprise Elaine Regus ; Irish Examiner John von Radowitz ; National Geographic John Roach plays the replay angle well down in his piece ;

Earlier Story (and pic source) Nat’l Geographic News Elizabeth Svoboda Aug, 2006;
Grist for the Mill: UC Riverside Press Release ;

Just an item, but this video shared on the AP wire is worth a moment. It seems some WWF researchers in Java set up remote automated video cameras to capture images of the rare Javan rhino. One mama beast spotted the hardware and, well, plenty of beleaguered human celebrities will share her feelings. Several outlets have it, including the Telegraph (UK) Thomas Bell , AFP, and BBC.

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The Journal‘s Robert Lee Hotz today runs a column on a study in Science that got some press in Europe a month or more ago, but not so much here. He – or, more properly, the researchers of whom he writes – might be stirring up some trouble here. Hotz describes a study, published in Science, that finds some potential fuel for stereotyping people of differing nationalities.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the UK and at Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen did a cross-cultural study of freeloaders and the response by onlookers to their selfishness, as well as the response by the freeloaders to the static they got when discovered. They asked students in 16 countries to play a game that depends on cooperation and mutual help. Some participants took advantage, helping nobody but themselves, while the majority everywhere evinced a more civic spirit. Freeloaders, once exposed, got about equally punished and shunned everywhere. The difference was that in some countries, the punished freeloaders seemed to be ashamed and chastened into better behavior. In others they just got worse.

Well! Hotz lets us know that in the US, the UK, Switzerland (please note the sites of the researchers involved), and China, freeloaders tend to reform. In “authoritarian and parcochial” lands such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Turkey, and Russia, the nasties got nastier. Maybe that’s why in authoritarian countries, the authorities tend to arrest people and lock them up forever? Short stretches don’t work? Hmmm. The US does that too. Hmmmm. Interpretation of this looks chancy. At any rate, news like this may be well-founded. But plenty of good people might resent the idea that due to their heritages once they go bad they tend to stay that way.

See Also: It’s in German – a piece in Welt online ;

Grist for the Mill: U. of Nottingham Press Release (Mar 7) ;

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The Chronicle of Higher Education has a bangup roundup this week, by Jeffrey R. Young, on the hair-pulling frustrations of scientific journal editors as they find more and more researchers enhancing, photo-shopping, and sometimes just plain distorting their images of microscopy electrophoresis, spectroscopy, crystallography, and other measurements whose results are seen mainly via digital pictures.

Some outfits do this routinely, and nobody much cares. NASA’s and other astronomers instinctively slather made-up colors on their digital images taken at arcane wavelengths so that far off nebulae etc. that are hardly even blurs to the normal human eye look to the media and to the public like skyscapes painted by angels in heaven. The Tracker, upon finding some illustrative but murky image useful as post decor, clicks them with the standard MS office Picture Manager’s default Auto Correct and they usually pop dramatically.

Young’s quarry however are scientists whose manipulations go well beyond mere contrast boosts. It’s a good story, although one must feel more than a little sympathy for the young scientist whose missteps provide the opening vignette (she is still, the kicker says, working and manages to be contrite while resentful of the grief she got).

One of the story’s primary sources, Dartmouth College computer scientist Hany Farid, tells much of the same story in his own voice, including how to spot a digitally altered image, in the June issue of Scientific American. The Chron. of Higher Ed, so far as The Tracker can tell, doesn’t but surely should have mentioned that to readers wanting to know more. (Late Addition: Sources at the Chronicle of Higher Ed say they simply didn’t know the SciAm piece was coming out, and pursued Farid after he made remarks at a conference a few weeks ago).

Pic: Source, A riff on a famous media-doctored photo, which The Tracker also jazzed up with a whiff of “Auto Correct”.

Debates about the origins of the western hemisphere’s aboriginal populations just got some clarification yet more complication too. It comes via a clump of hair 3000+ years old, recovered a few decades ago at Greenland’s Disko Bay. Danish researchers borrowed it for analysis from a museum collection. They report in today’s Science that they found a bit of a surprise. They sequenced its entire mitocondrial DNA genome. It told them that at least one of Greenland’s earliest residents shared close ancestry with neither today’s Inuit and eskimos nor with the American Indians that, earlier, settled farther south. This implies that at least three pulses of immigration moved across the Bering land bridge heading east and, in some cases, south.

The closest living relatives to whoever lost that hair, it appears, are a few groups in the westernmost Aleutian Islands and in northern Siberia, and distinct from today’s Alaskan Eskimos and Canada’s Inuit. Archaeologists had already noted transitions in tools and other physical culture in Greenland and Arctic N. America. They were unsure whether that resulted from homegrown technology progress or from arrival of different people. Looks, in some cases, like the latter now. More info may arise, reports say, if nuclear DNA can be sequenced from the old tress.

This research team has been in the news before – having led recent analysis of DNA from dried human feces uncovered in an Oregon cave (see earlier post, April 4).

Stories:

NYTimes Nicholas Wade includes an interesting detail – the lead researcher labored long and hard, digging for clues, in a full body suit to keep his own DNA from contaminating anything he found (yet the jackpot was in a museum all along) ; New Scientist Ewan Callaway ; Nature.com Daniel Cressey, usually responding to other stories in media and press releases at his The Great Beyond blog, covers this story expertly and in great detail, himself ; AAAS Science Michael Balter (subscription or EurekAlert password required) ; NPR Morning Edition Robert Smith provides a terrific interview with the lead researcher ;

Grist for the Mill: Univ. of Copenhagen Press Release ;

Somewhat Related Human Migration News: Science News Tia Ghose writes of evidence that separate waves of migration originally populated N. and So. America, and that some northern Siberian populations have a genetic affinity with people in the Orkneys, north of Scotland.

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The Tracker loves the National Geographic Society. I belong, read the magazine, and have written a few pieces for it as well as for the society’s news service. A more professional, fabulously illustrated, and lavishly produced pub is hard to find.

But boy, does it ever get a free ride from the rest of the press when it comes out with some flashy big story – especially ones from those evergreen fields: extinct monsters, archaeology, and fossilized bipeds in our family tree. It is no scoop to report that this is a vertically integrated mega-publicity-powerhouse. It’s been humming along for decades. The society funds big expeditions and clamps a news blackout on its grant recipients so they won’t talk to outside reporters in advance. It then publishes its own popular magazine and runs TV shows that both get the jump on everybody else in the news biz. Other reporters write it all up and further propel interest in the mag and the channel. What an operation – dunno whether the proper reaction is disapproval, or just admiration warped by envy.

Stonehenge, its latest archeology extravaganza says, was built as a monument to dead bigshots in prehistoric Britain. So say the archeologists it backed, led from the University of Sheffield. The collective mausoleum is a long-gone, ruling dynasty’s tidy, elegant equivalent to the tombs of Egypt. There they buried their aristocrats – starting well before the monoliths went up – for hundreds of years. On Sunday, Nat’l Geographic Channel will run a special on it. It’s the cover on the June issue of the magazine in an article by Caroline Alexander.

One other thing. Nat’l Geo does not, ordinarily and if memory serves, do jokes. Hardly a giggle at all. It is gravely serious, even when not reporting on graves. Well, take a look at this interview its Jim Piddock conducted with Nigel Tufnel “of Spinal Tap.” (It automatically loads its way through several parts, so hang on for each). The unhinged Tufnel has another ‘henge hypotheses and an opinion of Nat’l Geo’s supposed experts.

Samplings from the Rest of the Science Press:

New Scientist Linda Geddes ; NYTimes John Noble Wilford ; LA Times Thomas H. Maugh II ; Times (UK) Ben Hoyle (an arts reporter); Independent (UK) Steve Connor ; BBC ; Science News Bruce Bower ; AP Randolph E. Schmid ; Reuters Michael Kahn ; Nat’l Geographic News James Owen (who, properly, bothers to acknowledge that his service is owned by Nat’l Geo Soc’y) ; AFP ; Toronto Globe and Mail Philip Jackman ; Bloomberg Joseph Galante ;

Grist for the Mill:

Univ. of Sheffield Press Release ; Nat’l Geo article, TV program linked at top of post;

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The heavily-reported, recent award by a government vaccine injury compensation fund to an autistic youngster got a solid technical review, including considerable detail about its specific, untypical medical rationale, in the Philadelphia Inquirer this week by staffer Marie McCullough.

The story, to this admittedly inexpert eye, contains no errors in fact. A problem seems to arise however right in the headline, quoted in this post’s own hed. Chances are that when readers see “autism theory,” and then in the lede read that this is indeed about links between vaccination and autism, they’ll think of only one so-called theory. This is the hypothesis (hardly a theory if one is rigorous about usage) that until they were taken off the shelves, vaccines containing the mercury compound thimerosal raised chances of autism dramatically in the general public.

Read the story fully, and it is clear that the new line of research seeks a possible connection between immune stimulation and aggravation of rare, mitochondria-related conditions. It will likely reveal little or nothing to do about the recent surge in diagnosis of autism. The hypothesis may be gaining some credence. It seems a legitimate target of study. But it is not the one that has thousands of frantic, angry, and sincere parents seeking damages from vaccine makers or other parties to their children’s health care. The responsible message is that research may show that some sort of screening could identify a small number of kids at true risk of mitochondrial difficulties following vaccination. That, in fact it says here, is what the parents of the child who won compensation say. It appears to be a good point and news topic but is considerably less dramatic than suggested by “autism theory gains support.” Why not write clearly, from the get-go, that a class of rare mitochondrial disorders has gained a needed spotlight thanks to clues from an unusual autism case?

Related News: It’s a tiny pub but it turned up while writing this post. The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia yesterday carried a concise roundup on vaccine issues, including this one, that a high-powered health care panel discussed in Philly.

Pic source ;

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The Herald‘s Curtis Morgan has a pretty nice science story out today that will likely get read by many subscribers who ordinarily skip science news. It’s just so half-creepy and all-interesting. He describes a research project at Louisiana State and McNeese State University to isolate whatever it is in alligator blood that, it says here, makes it a potent killer of bacteria including strains resistant to common antibiotics.

He writes it with a certain enthusiasm, warning readers to resist “ordering up a quart of miracle healing elixir from the local gator farm.” But he does also provide a little bit about antibodies and peptides and hopes for synthetic duplication of whatever active antimicrobials the research finds. There even are signs that alligator blood carries potent antidotes to some viruses. The work, he writes, was presented at an American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans last month.

Even more to his credit, Morgan finds a few professor-level skeptics when it comes to expecting alligator blood to be a particularly useful source for treating human ailments. It is remarkable, one tells him, that gators that have had entire limbs ripped off in fights with their kin can then swim around in swamp water and heal up fine without apparent infection. So this is a fair profile of science – a plausible hypothesis, interesting subject matter, and the search for clear evidence of the idea’s merits, or lack of them.

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A remarkable report in Nature this week brings word of two lab monkeys that, with electrode-laced pads resting on their brains’ motor cortices, learned to control with great deftness robotic arms. They seemed to learn to regard the mechanical limbs as their own (their real arms were lightly restrained). They picked up food, smoothly put it in their mouths, and used the arms in ways that no computerized simulation of such mind over machine control could anticipate.

The work unfolded at the Univ. of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon U. It does not appear that this is so good, yet, that docs can just patch Stephen Hawking’s skull and his robot appliance will pick up chalk and start sketching trajectories through the space-time continuum. But that sort of thing comes instantly to mind.

The press material, and hence most media output, describes the work as demonstrating mind control. This evokes images of thoughts flying through the ether and making things to move about. That’s a little much – the system of course intercepts neural activity with electrical circuitry to get it to actuators, rather than having nerves carry the same signals to muscle. In broad brush, the schematics are the same. So far, the researchers have not put feedback – as in a sense of touch – in the mechanical appendages. But the work is amazing nonetheless.

Stories:

Bloomberg Alex Nussbaum ; NYTimes Benedict Carey ; Science News Patrick Barry evokes a retro-TV show: The Six Million Dollar Monkeys ; Independent (UK) Steve Connor ; Nat’l Geographic Brian Handwerk ; Voice of America Jessica Berman ; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette David Templeton ;

Grist for the Mill: U. of Pittsburgh Schools of Hlth Sci Press Release ; The Tracker, assuming the video must be on YouTube, found it there all right. Here’s one, from a Discovery Channel program.

Pic: To be clear, this monkey cyborg by cartoonist Keelan Parham has nothing to do with this research but is too good not to share. Source here.

Other Robot News: Nothing tele-operated here. AP‘s Greg Bluestein describes work at Georgia Tech on roboticized kiddie-sized snowmobiles modified with computers and automated gear. They imagine such things some day roaming Antarctica in interactive flocks to pick up weather and other data cheaper than could people on full-sized snowmobiles.

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Lots of stories out today keeping the public up on the day to day doings of the Mars Phoenix lander. It’s hardly worth tracking the lot – the news is that a minor communication glitch has cleared and the machine’s arm is getting unlimbered. It’ll get down to work soon. One story, however, by the NYTimes‘s John Schwartz, while mostly about the comm. hitch and the arm, includes mention of “startlingly clear photos” by the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter of the landing sequence. The Tracker pursued them. I had one up the other day, but an even more remarkable one is worth sharing. A piece of it is to the right. Click on the whole, hi-res image to see a tableu showing the lander and its parachute descending in front of a large crater that is many miles from the landing site. NASA’s photo mavens conveniently blew up, in the insert, the lander – it is a mere speck against the planet’s immensity in the raw image. The photo’s caption is here.

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This week in New York finds a World Science Festival underway at Columbia University. It highlights both New York’s and the world’s scientific achievements. It features a parade of A-list (Nobelists, etc.) public speakers. Such fairs tend to be celebrations but the Washington Post‘s Keith B. Richburg zeroed in on one panel of luminaries – including Sec’y of State Condoleezza Rice’s science adviser – that tend to agree the US has recently squandered much of its reputation for savvy science.

The Tracker’s summation of Richburg’s summation: the US’s perceived disdain for science has made us look more than a tad like a troop of buffoons in the eyes of many people outside our borders. Top federal officials won’t fund much stem cell research, they lean on government scientists to skew their findings (or did for quite awhile), they turn their backs on climate change urgencies, and they generally don’t act very intelligent. Popular anti-evolution movements don’t help either. Richburg selects quotes from an impressive lineup of big-name scientists to hit his marks. Even Mayor Bloomberg gets in on the pile-on (in a separate, meeting-opening speech).

*UPDATE: An hour or so after this post went up, another reporter revealed that Richburg got this story by diligent (that is, what ought to be routine) reporting. Rather than rely on the press conference, he went to the actual session. The issue of US science prestige was not even on the agenda. It came out as a spontaneous volunteering of opinion by the panelists in response to an audience question near the session’s close.

A few other outlets paid attention as it opened yesterday, but none with the admirable, broadly thematic edge of the Post’s story:

Voice of America Kate Miller ; and two NYTimes blogging reporters give it a look too: Andrew C. Revkin at DotEarth who notes he is also on the program; and John Tierney at his TierneyLab ; Scientific American Nikhili Swaminathan focusses on Mayor Bloomberg’s lambaste of “political science” that’s been trumping science science ; NPR Robert Krulwich ;

Grist for the Mill: official site, World Science Festival ; and its Press Kit ;

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Los Angeles, cursed with its inversion layer that lets airborne pollutants sit and simmer and turn brown and acrid with ozone, finally caught a tree-hugging break. It ranks really high on one enviro metric that made news yesterday – higher even than breezy San Francisco and environs, their air usually asparkle because the wind sends local crud promptly to the San Joaquin Valley to boost asthma rates in Fresno. New York’s aces, too. And metropolitan areas in the Ohio Valley? The pits. All that coal for power, cold winters and muggy summers, and maybe the ratio of pickup trucks and other big, country-style vehicles.

A team at the Brookings Institute released its per-capita urban carbon footprint scorecard yesterday. It looked at energy used by residents in their daily lives (via cars and homes) directly, leaving out most industrial emissions. That may discount this report’s value considerably.

Media gobbled it up anyway. Just guessing, but this news may impress the term “carbon footprint” on more Americans – relatively few of whom follow eco-news to the point of memorizing such jargon – than has any other story so far. It does offer lessons for the public about the little things that add up to a big difference. Such as (jingoistic Golden State brag follows) the steadfast authority given the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission decades ago to demand – market forces to the contrary – efficient appliances, well-insulated buildings, renewable energy portfolios, lighting standards, and other such code strictures. The result has saved state consumers and businesses billions of dollars in utility bills and the economy prospered as per-capita electricity consumption stayed virtually flat since the 1970s. Now, if the EPA would only let us Californians put our own extra kibosh on gas-hog cars….

Well, anyway, many reporters focussed first on how their local burg rated. Story Samples:

AP H. Josef Hebert stresses the primary lesson: city dwellers tend to be easier on nature than those who live in it ; Seattle PI Tom Paulson waves the flag for his town, 6th best in the US (lots of hydropower) ; Honolulu Advertiser Dennis Camire, Larry Wheeler and Honolulu Star Bulletin Gene Park noted their city, with few high speed freeways and low heating bills, ranks tops. The carbon-intense import of almost all goods, usually by air, does not figure in the stats, report Camire and Wheeler in the Advertiser ; Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky) Andy Mead reports glumly the town ranks worst of all. The news feed had the right hed: Greenhouse Mess in the Bluegrass ; Los Angeles Times Margot Roosevelt says yes, we’re number two in the greenstakes but adds “…by some criteria.” It’s a balanced story but she can’t resist calling calling lower-performing San Francisco “its eco-vain rival,” so there. Her story gets neatly into pertinent policy and legislative matters in DC ; Indianapolis Star Maureen Groppe, Dan McFeely reports yikes, we’re 2d worst ; NY Times Felicity Barringer gives her lede to the top performance of western burgs, but says quick enough that New York City (with its high density buildings and few private cars) did fine too. She also quotes a source noting the price paid in states where regulators don’t let their utilities make more money by encouraging people to use LESS electricity ; lots more…

Grist for the Mill: Brookings Institute “Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America” report.

Pic source ;