A poetic lament on the demise of the exoplanet-hunting space telescope is a reminder that contemplating the universe isn't just for scientists

Researchers announced they have sequenced the long genomes of the White spruce and the Norway spruce. The genomes are ten times larger than the human genome. They each contain 20-30 billion base-pairs.

Prof. Steven Jones, senior author of the white spruce genome study, said in the announcement, "Attempting the sequencing of such a large genome was an incredibly ambitious task and required the development of novel software and innovative use of DNA sequence technology to piece together short DNA sequences to form this massive genome, much like a large jigsaw puzzle."

The genome sequences could lead to new tools for tree breeding. It could also help shorten the spruce breeding cycle. Prof. John MacKay of Universite Laval, a co-author of both studies, says, "A genome-based marker system could serve to reduce the time of a spruce breeding cycle from currently 25 to as short as five year."

The research was published here in the journal Nature and here in the Bioinformatics.

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Researchers have announced the discovery of a new small plant-eating dinosaur. Albertadromeus syntarsus is described as a speedy runner. It was about 1.6 meters (5 feet) long and weighed about 16 kilograms (30 pounds). It lived in what is now southern Alberta in the Late Cretaceous, about 77 million years ago. The dinosaur is described by palaeontologists from the University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Cleveland Museum of Natural History and University of Calgary in a research paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. An artist's illustration of what the small dinosaur may have looked like, by Julius T. Csotonyi, is pictured above.

The name Albertadromeus syntarsus means "Alberta runner with fused foot bones." The researchers say its fused lower leg bones would have made it both fast and agile. The researchers say less small dinosaur bones have been discovered on Earth because their bones were more delicate and are often destroyed before being fossilized.

Caleb Brown of the University of Toronto, lead author of the study, said in a statement, "We know from our previous research that there are preservational biases against the bones of these small dinosaurs. We are now starting to uncover this hidden diversity, and although skeletons of these small ornithopods are both rare and fragmentary, our study shows that these dinosaurs were more abundant in their ecosystems than previously thought."

Michael Ryan of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, says, "Albertadromeus may have been close to the bottom of the dinosaur food chain but without dinosaurs like it, we would not have giants like T. rex. Our understanding of the structure of dinosaur ecosystems is dependent on the fossils that have been preserved. Fragmentary, but important, specimens like that of Albertadromeus suggest that we are only beginning to understand the shape of dinosaur diversity and the structure of their communities."



Images: (c) Julius T. Csotonyi (top) / Caleb Brown (bottom)

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Five elements at the heart of the periodic table will never look the same again, following an update to their atomic weights

Scientists have discovered two new species of miniature spiders in Sichuan and Chongqing, China. The tiny spiders are both less than 2 mm in length. Trogloneta yuensis is as little as 1.01 mm. Mysmena wawuensis (pictured above) was measured at just 0.75 mm. It is among the smallest spiders known on Earth. The two species both have a bizarre body shape with a disproportionately big spherical posterior body.

The two new species found in China are considered endemic to their type localities in the Sichuan and Chongqing. The region of Wawu Mt. National Forest Park - where Mysmena wawuensis was discovered - is also home to a small population of wild giant panda of about 10 individuals.

The research was published here in Zookeys.

Photo: Shuqiang Li

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I discuss the myths about why our fingers go “pruney” in the bath or swimming pool in my book Deceived Wisdom, the truth seems to lie in the work of Mark Changizi. In this cartoon, we see the explanation and get to hear his theory in his own words.

Deceived wisdom about pruney fingers is a post from the science blog of David Bradley, author of Deceived Wisdom Subscribe to our Email Newsletter

Endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) are undergoing acupuncture procedures. The New England Aquarium called in Claire McManus, a licensed acupuncturist, to help the turtles. The turtles became stranded on Cape Cod this winter and were suffering from hypothermia. In a blog post, the aquarium says, "Typically the turtles settle down during the acupuncture treatment and seem to enjoy it."

Take a look:



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A drone monitoring system that tracks flash floods in real time can buy time to escape before the waters hit

The North Atlantic is now wide enough to create exceptionally high tides, making the rate of the moon's retreat faster now than it was 50 million years ago

Hypothetical conscious entities that randomly pop into existence may undermine our view of the universe – string theory may banish these Boltzmann brains

Overexpression of a gene associated with schizophrenia causes classic symptoms of the disorder that are reversed when gene expression returns to normal, scientists report. They genetically engineered...

The planet-spotting Kepler telescope seems doomed, but its discoveries along with a new version of the famous Drake equation will sharpen the hunt for ET (full text available to subscribers)

A raft of new apps and hacks for Google's forthcoming device show us life beyond the smartphone

The barium levels in a Neanderthal child's molar indicate its mother stopped breastfeeding at 14 months – more than a year earlier than modern humans

All the latest stories on newscientist.com: watching your mind in action, Drake equation rebooted, new apps and hacks for Google Glass, and more

The UK's wildlife isn't faring too well, but lost and new species of wild insects and plants are appearing there and elsewhere in Europe

This brazen, beautiful, evidently male Javan leopard doesn't show obvious signs of stress – despite being recently added to the Red List of endangered species

We no longer have to wonder what self-awareness looks like, says neuroscientist Daniel Bor – now we can see for ourselves (full text available to subscribers)

Research presented today shows that high-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioural reactions in rats similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine. These results, presented by addiction...

The new coronavirus that emerged in the Arabian Peninsula last year is spreading among people that have had no contact with a known infected case

In a review in the New york Times Book Review, Daniel Handler writes:

And strange? Well, let's get this straight: All great books are strange. Every lasting work of literature since the very weird "Beowulf" has been strange, not only because it grapples with the strangeness around us, but also because the effect of originality is startling, making even the oldest books feel like brand new stories.

Strange: Out-of-the-ordinary, unusual, curious. "The strangeness around us," says Handler. There is a paradox here. What could be less strange than the world around us? It is the same world that was here yesterday, and the day before that. More to the point: It is a world ruled by law. Inviolable causal bonds. That's what makes science possible.

And yet, and yet. I walk wary. Strangeness lurks on ever side. Strangeness leaps out of every pebble in the path, every wildflower, every spider web flung between weedy stalks. In the midst of the utterly ordinary the extraordinary abounds. Nothing is so commonplace as to be common.

The strangeness of the world, as in literature, has its source in the head, in the convoluted interaction of mind with world. Strange, that we should be here, strangers in a strange land, pilgrims on our own yellow brick roads where nothing is ordinary because everything is perceived through the filter of a unique consciousness.

And strange? Well, let's get this straight. I hope never to loose the capacity to see the strangeness in the familiar, the curious in the everyday, the exception in the unexceptional. "I do not expect a miracle/ or an accident/ to set the sight on fire," wrote Silvia Plath. Just being here is enough. Just being here is surpassing strange.

The tabloids were screaming at new parents this week desperately yelling at them not to share a bed with their newborn because it could be lethal, causing sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death. The research said so. SIDS is tragic, of course, but a little composure, please.

As NHS Choices explains: “The researchers estimate that the absolute risk of SIDS for room-sharing infants was 0.00008 (eight per 100,000) when neither parent smoked and the baby was less than three months old, breastfed, and had no other risk factors.”

That’s 8 of every 100,000 infant deaths for babies sleeping in the same room, not the same bed as their parent(s). The research showed that bed-sharing increased this death rate risk to 0.00023 (that’s 23 per 100,000) deaths. Both tiny proportions of the total number of deaths. There is a world of difference between absolute and relative risk. The tabloids said a fivefold increase in risk (actually looks like it’s less than threefold), but the risk is tiny either way. Absolutely tiny. Of every 100,000 babies that die, the “cause” is referred to as SIDS in just 0.023%.

Exactly what SIDS is and what causes it are yet to be determined. Two of the bullet points given in the article hint at the specific risks: “do not share a bed with your baby, particularly if you have been drinking or have taken drugs”, do not let your baby get too hot and keep your baby’s head uncovered.

NHS Choices alludes to the fact that smoking, alcohol and drug use are also risk factors and that the risk of SIDS decreases as baby gets older. Like I say, tragic for the parents and families affected, I’m not belittling the tragedy, just trying to point out that the risks are small and while parents should listen to advice from their healthcare workers, they shouldn’t become neurotic about the safety of their child on the back of tabloid headlines.

Sharing a bed with your baby ups risk of cot death – Health News – NHS Choices.

SIDS, cot death absolute risks is a post from the science blog of David Bradley, author of Deceived Wisdom Subscribe to our Email Newsletter

Scientists from Ohio University have determined that Allosaurus fed more like a falcon than a crocodile. The research was published here in the journal, Palaeontologia Electronica. The image above shows silhouettes of Allosaurus and a falcon, along with a frightened human for scale.



The scientists used the Allosaurus skeleton known as "Big Al" for the study. Eric Snively, John Cotton, Ryan Ridgely, Lawrence Witmer are pictured with a replica of Big Al above.

Paleontologist Eric Snively, lead author of the new study, said in a statement, "Apparently one size doesn't fit all when it comes to dinosaur feeding styles. Many people think of Allosaurus as a smaller and earlier version of T. rex, but our engineering analyses show that they were very different predators."



Snively and mechanical engineer John Cotton conducted specialized engineering analysis borrowed from robotics called multibody dynamics. This allowed the scientists to run sophisticated simulations of the head and neck movements Allosaurus made when attacking prey and stripping flesh from a carcass. The researchers had to re-flesh the Allosaurus and add soft tissues using clues from the anatomical structure of modern-day dinosaur relatives, such as birds and crocodilians.

Snively says, "Allosaurus was uniquely equipped to drive its head down into prey, hold it there, and then pull the head straight up and back with the neck and body, tearing flesh from the carcass ... kind of like how a power shovel or backhoe rips into the ground."

The researchers say they discovered Allosaurus had a relatively light head after restoring its soft tissues and air sinuses using their reconstruction techniques. The researchers created the following animation of Allosaurus feeding and moving its head. Take a look:



Images: WitmerLab at Ohio University

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Scientists from the University of Zurich say that 14 different crocodile species existed five million years ago and about seven of them occupied the same region at the same time. The scientists say the deltas of the Amazonas and the Urumaco (a river on the Gulf of Venezuela that no longer exists) was inhabited by an abundance of diverse crocodile species that has remained unparalleled ever since.

Fossils of two new ancient crocodile species have been discovered. They include the Globidentosuchus brachyrostris (pictured below), which belonged to the caiman family and had spherical teeth, and Crocodylus falconensis (pictured above), a crocodile that the researchers assume grew up to well over four meters long.

The scientists say the different alligators that lived in the region were specialized feeders. Globidentosuchus brachyrostris probably fed on shellfish, snails or crabs with its spherical teeth. There were also giant crocodiles during this period the grew up to 12 meters long and ate turtles, giant rodents and smaller crocodiles.



Torsten Scheyer from the University of Zurich says in a statement, "There were no predators back then in South America that could have hunted the three-meter-long turtles or giant rodents. Giant crocodiles occupied this very niche."

The research was published here in Nature Communications.

Photos: UZH

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Scientists have discovered a new enigmatic species of ant in the Philippines. Cardiocondyla pirata has a bizarre pigmentation pattern that has no equivalent worldwide. The female castes in the ant colonies have a distinctive dark stripe across the eyes that resembles a pirate eye patch, which is the what inspired the name.

The researchers theorize that the pirate-like coloration pattern could serve as a tool to distract and confuse the enemy. The ants have a rather translucent body. Predators may think the anterior and posterior body parts of the ants are two species. The dark patch could also serve as a cue for mating.

Sabine Frohschammer, PhD student Universitat Regensburg, said in a statement, "On a collection trip to the Philippines we looked for different species of the genus Cardiocondyla that is known for its astonishing morphological and behavioral diversity of male ants. Beside already know species we also detected a until then undiscovered species in the cleavage of big stones in a shady streambed. Due to the darkness of the rainforest and the translucent body parts of the tiny ants they were nearly invisible. Under bright light and a magnifier we detected the nice stripe across the eyes and therefore always referred to these species as 'the pirates.'"



The research was published here in Zookeys.

Photos: Bernhard Seifert

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There will be more deaths in summer and fewer in winter as climate change begins to bite in New York City. The net effect is not good news

All the latest stories on newscientist.com: rebuilding the LHC, killer army robots, Oklahoma tornado, sniping the easy way, and more

The tornado that struck Oklahoma City in the US on Monday was unusually large and powerful, and it came down at a bad time of day

The first 3D-printed copies of real human hearts will help surgeons prepare to work on the problems of the originals

The race is on to revamp the accelerator that found the Higgs boson, doubling its energy by February 2015. Michael Brooks samples the action at CERN (full text available to subscribers)

The Bonobo and the Atheist and How Animals Grieve show that we must be careful when studying animals to learn about the origins of human traits and behaviours

The monster tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma yesterday was at least an EF4 with winds up to 200 mph. It may have been an EF5 (winds over 200 mph) but the upgrade won't come until an assessment by the National Weather Service. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel says he has a feeling it will end up being an EF5:



The tornado carved a path of destruction for over twenty miles and it was at least one-mile-wide. The path of the tornado is fairly similar to the EF5 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma in May 1999.

Moore and the Oklahoma City region have the unfortunate distinction of being hit by two of the world's worst tornadoes in modern history. There was also a bad one in 2003. This image from the National Weather Service shows the paths of the 1999 and 2013 tornadoes. The red path is yesterday's tornado path. A larger version of the image can be found here.



The tornado's debris ball and hook echo were clearly visible on radar. This is the often case with the most dangerous tornadoes - the kind dubbed "grinders" that literally grind into the earth as they move. You can find some good images of the debris ball on radar here. The debris ball is exactly what it sounds like. It is pieces of homes, trees, dirt, cars, etc lifted by the winds. Radar can detect the flying debris once it is high enough in the air. CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera is quoted as saying the debris was lifted into the air as high as 20,000 feet by the tornado.

This video shows the tornado from a video taken with a cell phone. Take a look:



Update: The National Weather Service now says the Moore tornado was an EF5. The first EF5 of 2013.

Image: National Weather Service

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In the year 1600, Giordano Bruno went up in smoke in the Campo de' Fiori in Rome, the Field of Flowers. Among his many theological transgressions was the heretical belief that the stars were other Suns with other inhabited planets. How strongly the latter belief figured in his condemnation is a matter of controversy, but certainly it was part of the unorthodox stew Bruno held in his head.

Today, a statue of Bruno stands, dark and brooding, on a pedestal in what is now a busy market square, erected by Freethinkers in the 19th century. Not far away is Saint Peter's Square, which remains an epicenter of orthodoxy. The Church doesn't burn heretics anymore, but it doesn't tolerate dissent lightly. Just ask the American Catholic nuns who have lately run afoul of the Vatican.

Many years ago, I visited the Campo de' Fiori and made my nod to the man who entertained one of the most daring ideas of all time: a myriad of Suns, a multitude of inhabited worlds. Today you can visit with Google Street View without leaving your easy chair.

Meanwhile, astronomers are busy putting Bruno's ideas to the test of empirical verification. They have long since determined that the stars are indeed other Suns, or rather that the Sun is a typical star. Now they are engaged in a pell-mell search for extrasolar planets. Upwards of a thousand planets around other stars have been verified, and hundreds more are discovered every year. It now seems likely that most, if not all, stars have planetary systems. And a few of these are in the so-called habitable zone, defined as "the annulus around a star where a rocky planet with a CO₂-H₂O-N₂ atmosphere and sufficiently large water content can host liquid water on its solid surface."

Next comes detection of a planet with the chemical signature of life. The May 3 issue of Science has a special section on how this might be done, and in the not so distant future. If and when it happens, an obvious name is waiting for the planet.

Artificial intelligence expert Mark Bishop says a ban on weapons that can deploy and destroy without human intervention is vital

It's nearly summertime in the northern half of the world – time to find out what the festivals are laying on to entice the rational reveller

A Burmese python measuring 18 feet and 8 inches was captured in a rural area in South Florida. The python is the longest ever captured in Florida. It beats the previous record of 17 feet, 7 inches by over a foot. The python was a 128-pound female. Scientists at the University of Florida are pictured lying on the floor next to the dead python.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says in a release that Jason Leon saw the snake when he and his friends were driving around at night. Leon stop the car, grabbed the snake and dragged it out of the brush. The python then started to wrap itself around Leon's leg so Leon and his friends killed the large snake with a knife.

Kristen Sommers, Exotic Species Coordination Section Leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), said in a statement, "Jason Leon's nighttime sighting and capture of a Burmese python of more than 18 feet in length is a notable accomplishment that set a Florida record. The FWC is grateful to him both for safely removing such a large Burmese python and for reporting its capture."

Florida asks residents to report sightings of exotic species to IveGot1.org. Florida also invited people to hunt and kill pythons in the Everglades earlier this year.

Photo: University of Florida/Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

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Vitamin supplements seem to prevent atrophy of brain regions such as the hippocampus, which waste away in people with Alzheimer's

Energy profiles of diving seabirds reveal they sacrifice flying efficiency to swim better, edging towards flightlessness

A new study from Columbia University's Earth Institute and the Mailman School of Public Health projects heat-related deaths in Manhattan to climb 20% in the 2020s. The same study provides worst-case scenarios of heat-related deaths soaring 90% in the 2080s. The study also found that the largest percentage increase in deaths would come not during the traditionally sweltering months of June through August, but in May and September. These periods are generally pleasant today, but will probably increasingly feel like part of the brutal dog days of summer.

The study found the best-case scenario for the 2020s in Manhattan projects a net 15% increase in heat-related deaths. The worst scenario is a rise in heat wave deaths of more than 30%. The worst case scenario would mean 1,000 annual deaths if Manhattan's current population of 1.6 million remains the same. However, a city wide power outage timed with a strong heat wave could cause many more heat-related deaths.

The researchers say daily records from Manhattan's Central Park show that average monthly temperatures already increased by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit from 1901 to 2000. This is substantially more than the global and U.S. trends. Cities tend to concentrate heat as buildings and pavement soak it up during the day and give it off at night. 2012 was Manhattan's warmest year on record.

Dr. Radley Horton, a climate scientist at the Earth Institute's Center for Climate Systems Research, notes that heat waves can kill tens of thousands of people. Horton says the record 2010 heat wave that hit Russia killed 55,000 people and a 2003 heat wave killed 70,000 people in central and western Europe.

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A new computer-aiming system for rifles lets you "tag" a target with a laser pulse and works out the best moment to pull the trigger, making life easier for long-range killers

All the latest stories on newscientist.com: consciousness – the what, why and how – a second chance to save the climate, fission can fizzle out, and more

The U.S. Navy has been training dolphins to find mines. The dolphins can apparently find 19th century torpedos as well. The L.A. Times reports that trained dolphins found a rare 19th century torpedo off the coast of California. Only fifty of these brass torpedos - like the one pictured above - were made by Howell between 1870 and 1889. The U.S. Navy thought only one torpedo remained, until the dolphins found another one.

Mike Rothe, who heads the program, told the L.A. Times, "We've never found anything like this. Never."

The torpedo was found by bottlenose dolphins named Ten and Spetz.

Photo: U.S. Navy

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1998 QE2, a 1.7-mile-wide (2.7 km) asteroid, will pass within 3.6 million miles of the Earth on May 31, 2013. The image above shows the orbit of asteroid 1998 QE2.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the asteroid is about nine times bigger than the length of the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) cruise ship. The 1998 portion of the asteroid's name is the year it was discovered. NASA says radar from the Goldstone antenna could resolve features on the asteroid as small as 12 feet.

Lance Benner, the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement, "Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be an outstanding radar imaging target at Goldstone and Arecibo and we expect to obtain a series of high-resolution images that could reveal a wealth of surface features. Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin. We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise."

The budget for NASA"s NEO (Near Earth Object Program) was increased from $6 million to $20 million in 2012. This still seems very small, especially considered the recent Russian meteorite impact. NEO's website can be found here.

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Harvard researchers grew microscopic flower structures by perfecting chemical reactions in the lab. Wim L. Noorduin, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), discoverd that he could control the growth of crystals by manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid.

Noorduin said in a statement, "For at least 200 years, people have been intrigued by how complex shapes could have evolved in nature. This work helps to demonstrate what's possible just through environmental, chemical changes."

The researchers used barium chloride and sodium silicate to create the micro flowers.

To create the flower structures, Noorduin and his colleagues dissolve barium chloride (a salt) and sodium silicate (also known as waterglass) into a beaker of water. Carbon dioxide from air naturally dissolves in the water, setting off a reaction which precipitates barium carbonate crystals. As a byproduct, it also lowers the pH of the solution immediately surrounding the crystals, which then triggers a reaction with the dissolved waterglass. This second reaction adds a layer of silica to the growing structures, uses up the acid from the solution, and allows the formation of barium carbonate crystals to continue.

The researchers were able to manipulate the chemical reactions to create the flower-like structures. For example, increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide helps to create broad-leafed structures.

The research was published here in Science.



Photos: Images courtesy of Wim L. Noorduin

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The MIT Cheetah now runs at a speed of 22 km/h (13.67 mph). The robot was developed by the MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab. Boston Dynamics built a much faster and creepier Cheetah robot for DARPA (see here), but MIT's Cheetah robot runs more efficiently. Neither of the robots yet run tether free.

Automaton says the MIT Cheetah has a cost of transport (COT) of .52. COT is described as power consumption divided by weight times velocity. This is lower than Asimo's COT of 2 and BigDog's COT of 15. Automaton says MIT has plans to reduce the Cheetah bot's efficiency down to .33.

This video shows MIT Cheetah running at 22 km/h and its gait transition from trot to gallop. Take a look:



Photo: MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab

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Scientists have observed the metamorphosis inside a living chrysalis using time-lapse CT scanning technology. The scientists studied the pupae of a Vanessa cardui, which is also known as the Painted Lady or Cosmopolitan butterfly. The image above shows scans of the chrysalis at day 16 of development.

Russell Garwood of the University of Manchester, told The Scientist, "It's basically the first time a CT has been used to look at the development of a single individual."

The animation below shows how the metamorphosis progressed each day over a 16-day period. Take a look:



The research was published here in the Journal of The Royal Society.

Photo: T. Lowe et al.

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Automaton reports that French developers are building this robotic penguin, named roboPINGU. The robotic penguin is part of project called Robadom, which aims to usher in a new generation of butler robots. Butler bots that resemble penguins sounds like a fine idea. So far, roboPINGU only moves its head around and opens and closes its beak. Hopefully, it won't be long before it serves drinks and carries trays of delicious hors d'oeuvres. Take a look:



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NASA reports that the moon was impacted by a 40-kilogram meteoroid on March 17. The boulder was 0.3 to 0.4 meters wide. The explosion packed a punch equivalent to 5 tons of TNT and was as bright as a 4th magnitude star. It was ten times brighter than any previous explosion observed on the moon. NASA says a crater 20 meter-wide was probably created upon impact. NASA also says the Earth-Moon system was impacted by a meteor event on March 17. Take a look:



Photo: NASA

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Fujitsu has developed a facial imaging technology that can measure your pulse in real-time. Fujitsu says the device is accurate to about 3 beats per minute. People sit in front of a mirrored display which has a video camera attached to its side. The display shows the user's blood pressure reading on top of the screen. The technology measures the amount of light absorbed by a person's face to calculate their pulse. Engadget reports that Fujitsu Laboratories Limited has also developed the technology for tablets and smartphones. Take a look:



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Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) announced they have reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic skin cells. The image above shows a donor egg cytoplasm containing a skin cell nucleus.

The scientists say the technique they used is a variation of somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. SCNT involves transplanting the nucleus of one cell, containing an individual's DNA, into an egg cell that has had its genetic material removed. The unfertilized egg cell then develops and eventually produces stem cells.

BBC News reports that an embryo was developed to the blastocyst stage, which is around 150 cells.Previous unsuccessful attempts by several labs showed that human egg cells appear to be more fragile than eggs from other species and therefore harder to clone. To solve this problem, the OHSU group studied various alternative approaches first developed in monkey cells and were able to develop a successful method.

Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., a senior scientist at ONPRC, and leader of the research, said in a statement, "A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells. Furthermore, because these reprogrammed cells can be generated with nuclear genetic material from a patient, there is no concern of transplant rejection. While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine."

The research was published by here in Cell.

Photo: OHSU

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Two new species of water mites, Torrenticola kimichungi and Monatractides abei, have been discovered in South Korea and the Russian Far East. The image above shows one of the newly discovered water mite species Torrenticola kimichungi.

The water mites were collected by using a hand-pump and hand netting. The pumped samples were filtered through the netting and then fixed in 70 % ethanol for further examination in the laboratory under a stereo microscope.

Vladimir Pesic, Department of Biology, University of Montenegro, lead author of the study, said in a statement, "Water mites are a diverse and widespread but still neglected group of freshwater fauna. In natural streams, species diversity of water mites is generally rather high and may reach, or occasionally even exceed, 50 species at single collecting site, often most of these are torrenticolid mites. Torrenticolid mites avoid habitats with silty substrata and intermittent flow, and their study can give valuable information on the ecological characteristics of the areas with an unstable surface water regime."

The study was published here in the journal Zookeys.

Photo: Vladimir Pesic

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A new species of green palm pitviper of the genus Bothriechis has been found in a cloud forest reserve in northern Honduras. The new species, Bothriechis guifarroi, had been previously confused with other Honduran palm pitvipers. Genetic analysis revealed that the closest relatives of the new species are found over 600 km to the south, in the mountains of Costa Rica. The study was published here in Zookeys.



The new species was discovered by scientists during expeditions in 2010 aimed at studying the fauna of Texiguat Wildlife Refuge. The new species was named in honor of Mario Guifarro of Olancho. Guifarro was a former hunter and gold miner who became an outspoken conservationist when he saw the vast rainforests in eastern Honduras being destroyed and converted to cattle ranches.

Dr. Josiah Townsend, lead author of the study from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement, "The description of Bothriechis guifarroi has important implications for Central American biogeography as well as conservation. We recommend that B. guifarroi be immediately classified as Critically Endangered due to its limited known area of occurrence and the potential for anthropogenic damage to its habitat. We also consider that this species warrants immediate consideration for protection under CITES, given its striking appearance and high potential for exploitation in the pet trade."

Photos: Josiah H. Townsend

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A team of astronomers at Tel Aviv University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have announced the discovery an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein's special theory of relativity. "Einstein's planet," formally known as Kepler-76b, is described as a "hot Jupiter" that orbits its star every 1.5 days. Kepler-76b has a temperature of about 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Its diameter is about 25% larger than Jupiter and it weighs twice as much. It orbits a type F star about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

The new planet finding method looks for three small effects that occur simultaneously as a planet orbits the star. Einstein's "beaming" effect causes the star to brighten as it moves toward us and dim as it moves away. Kepler-76b was identified by the BEER algorithm, which stands for relativistic BEaming, Ellipsoidal, and Reflection/emission modulations. The BEER algoritihm was developed by Professor Tsevi Mazeh and his student, Simchon Faigler, at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

David Latham of the CfA, said in a statement, "We are looking for very subtle effects. We needed high quality measurements of stellar brightnesses, accurate to a few parts per million."

Space.com reports that the new planet finding method works best for discovering large Jupiter-sized worlds and does not currently work for finding Earth-sized planets.

Image: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

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This video shows a moving wave of ice threatening homes in the Mille Lacs Lake area of Minnesota. The homeowners watch helplessly as the ice creeps towards their homes. You can hear one of the homeowners shout that the ice has just busted through a door in the first video. NBC News reports that several homes were damaged by the ice. NBC News meteorologist says the ice surge was moving at a rate of two feet per minute. It doesn't look quite that fast in the video, but it is obvious the ice is moving. The original 6.5 minute video posted by a resident can be found here. Take a look:





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The Weather Channel reports that large swamp rats, called nutria (Myocastor coypus), are "eating Louisiana." This is technically correct as the semi-aquatic rats are devouring plants in Louisiana's wetlands, which augments soil erosion. The National Geographic says Nutria, also known as coypu, can be 17 to 25 inches tall (43 to 64 cm) and weigh as much as 15 to 22 pounds (7 to 10 kg). The big rats were brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s by entrepreneurs who hoped to profit from selling nutria fur.

This photo shows the size of Nutria droppings.



Chris Metzier, the filmaker behind the upcoming documentary, Rodents of Unusual Size, told Take Part in an interview that the nutria help to erode 40 square miles per soil per year. This is bad because those wetlands help protect the coast from the surge generated by hurricanes. Take a look:



Photos: Stephen R. Kendrot/APHIS

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Researchers believe Elephant's Tomb in the Roman necropolis of Carmona was not always used for burials. The Carmona necropolis in Spain is a collection of funeral structures from between the 1st century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D. One of these is known as the Elephant's Tomb because a statue in the shape of an elephant was found in the interior of the structure. The researchers found four stages during which the building was renovated and used in different ways.

The researchers say the original structure of the building and a window through which the sun shines in during the equinoxes suggests that it was a temple of Mithraism, an unofficial religion in the Roman Empire. The authors believe that the sun would have illuminated a statue of the tauroctony, the statue of Mithras slaying the bull (which has been lost).

Inmaculada Carrasco, one of the authors of the study, says in the announcement, "In some stages, it was used for burial purposes, but its shape and an archaeoastronomical analysis suggest that it was originally designed and built to contain a Mithraeum [temple to Mithras]. From our analysis of the window, we have deduced that it was positioned so that the rays of the sun reached the centre of the chamber during the equinoxes, in the spring and autumn, three hours after sunrise."

Here is a video showing how the sun would have lit up the statue during the equinoxes. Take a look:



A research paper about the findings was published in Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia.

Photo: University Pablo Olavide

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Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Kodlab have developed RHex, an impressive six legged leaping robot. The versatile little robot is able to jump, flip itself over, do blackflips and climb up obstacles using its C-shaped legs and flat body. Aaron M. Johnson and D. E. Koditschek of the University of Pennsylvania presented the robot at ICRA 2013. Their research paper can be found here. Take a look:



Photo: Kodlab/University of Pennsylvania

(via Automaton)

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Epecuen, Argentina was a bustling resort town on the shore of Lago Epecuen, a salt lake, in the 1950s to early 1980s. The town, which had a population of 1,500, was flooded when an unusual weather pattern led to an increase in rain that eventually caused the lake to begin to swell. In November, 1985 flood waters burst through a dam and then a dike protecting the town. Flood waters reportedly reached up to 33 feet. The town had to be abandoned.

The flood waters have been slowly receding over the past few years, revealing the ruins of Epecuen. New photographs of resurfaced Epecuen can be found here. Take a look:



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Researchers at Texas A&M University have successfully sequenced the complete genome of a Scarlet macaw. The team was led by Dr. Christopher Seabury and Dr. Ian Tizard at the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M. The bird selected for the sequencing was a female, named Neblina, who lives in the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa.

Dr. Tizard said in a statement, "The final analysis showed that there are about one billion DNA bases in the genome, which is about one-third of that found in mammals. Birds have much less DNA than mammals primarily because they do not possess nearly as much repetitive DNA."

Dr. Tizard explains the importance of macaw genome sequencing in this video. A couple reasons are the longevity of the bird (50 to 75 years) and their intelligence. Take a look:



Macaws are found in tropical Central and South America. The number of macaws have been reduced due to trapping the pet trade and habitat loss from deforestation. There are 23 species of macaws. Some of these have already become extinct while others are endangered.

The research was published here in PLoS One.

Photo: Tambopata Research Center

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Remember that strikingly inept poll analysis about the Tea Party movement from The New York Times last month? Well, the new Washington Post-ABC News poll addresses the same topic, and the Post’s analysis seems to actually be rooted in reality:

The conservative “tea party” movement appeals almost exclusively to supporters of the Republican Party, bolstering the view that the tea party divides the GOP even as it has energized its base.

That conclusion, backed by numbers from a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, also suggests that the tea party may have little room for growth. Most Americans — including large majorities of those who don’t already count themselves as supporters — say they’re not interested in learning more about the movement. A sizable share of those not already sympathetic to the tea party also say that the more they hear, the less they like the movement.

Overall, the tea party remains divisive, with 27 percent of those polled saying they’re supportive but about as many, 24 percent, opposed. Supporters overwhelmingly identify themselves as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents; opponents are even more heavily Democratic. The new movement is also relatively small, with 8 percent of supporters claiming to be “active participants” — about 2 percent of the total population.

(Emphasis added by me.)

These numbers are somewhat similar to last month’s New York Times-CBS News poll, which found that 18% of Americans support the Tea Party movement. Despite the Times doing as much as it could to hype these results, I pointed out that this wasn’t very meaningful, since that poll found that 78% of these “supporters” had never attended a Tea Party rally or meeting or donated money to the Tea Party cause. So, doing a little math, we find that about 4% of people could be labeled as active Tea Partiers based on that poll (compared with 2% in the current Washington Post poll).

The difference in both of these numbers (27% vs. 18% for supporters, 4% vs. 2% for active participants) could be due to a real drop in support for and participation in the Tea Party movement, or just a difference between the two polls. My point in bringing it up is that The Washington Post’s analysis actually makes sense.

On the side, it is also of note that there’s some good news in the poll for the Democratic Party:

The percentage of people who say the Democratic Party represents their personal values and is in tune with the problems of people like themselves hasn’t changed since November. The percentage siding with the GOP, however, has dropped by almost precisely the numbers now siding with the tea party.

Some 14 percent of Americans say the tea party is most in sync with their values, nearly matching the 15 percentage-point drop-off for the GOP over the past five months.

For more, check out a graphic on the poll results here and the full poll results here.