The Nature Conservancy - Protecting nature, Preserving Life Science & Nature i * Welcome to the world! * Reptiles pay the price of fashion items * Earth younger than previously thought * Earliest Britons * Car fuel made from CO2 & sunlight * Fossil sperm whale found in Peruvian desert * Science Weekly Live * World's deepest under sea volcanic vents * Made in China - millions of years ago * The future is orange - Autumn colours5000 rare trees found in SW China * Worker bees do it! * Beautiful creatures that live under the sea off our coast * A real bolt from the blue * Vast oceans lay beneath the Earth's surface * Lightning strikes!Midnight sun * Swamp Lake * Scientists unveil stunning fossil *Baby mammoth...* Dinasaurs survived in a remote lost world... * A light at the end of the tunnel * Dinosaurs..Lost World * The spectacular eruption of an underwater volcano in the South Pacific * Fossil monster.. * Top 10 inventions that changed te world * Neanderthal man - genetic breakthrough * 50 new species in Jurassic fossil beds * Fossil snake * Colombia: 10 new species * China - new species * Darwin..* Snowflakes * Return of the Mammoth * Fishermen & flies * Diamond clue to comet that wiped out early North Americans * Minerals on Mars *Over the moon * Ocean currents can power the world * Smiles over Oz * Optical illusions * Buried in each other's arms * A secret world at the bottom of the sea * Aura Borealis & Aura Australis - Northern & southern Lights * Indian Summer * Evolution stops here * Human evolution coming to a halt - from The Press Association.

Welcome to the world! Heart-warming pictures show giant panda tenderly washing newborn cub  By Mail Foreign Service  28.07.2010

These heart-warming pictures show a giant panda nurturing her newborn cub at a reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The eight-year-old panda tenderly licks the cub clean and carries it to safety in her mouth.

First-time mother Ju Xiao gave birth to twins at the Bifengxia base in Ya'an, but only nursed the first cub, according to a Malaysian news agency.
Come to mum! Ju Xiao gingerly picks the cub up in her mouth and carries it to safety  

Come to mum! Ju Xiao gingerly picks the cub up in her mouth and carries it to safety

Protective: The giant panda gave birth to twins, but only nurtured the first cub, not allowing people to come near it

Protective: The giant panda gave birth to twins, but only nurtured the first cub, of which she immediately became fiercely protective, not letting people near it

Pandas rarely give birth to twins and mothers often only take the first cub as their own.

When the second cub was ignored, it was immediately sent to a panda nursery, said Tang Chunxiang, deputy chief of the giant panda protection and research centre in Wolong, which oversees the Ya'an reserve.

The second cub, which was male, weighed a meagre 135g.

panda

Tiny paws: The pink baby takes its first breaths as Ju Xiao looks on

The gender of the first cub was not immediately known as Ju Xiao's motherly instincts immediately kicked in and she stopped people from approaching it, said Tang.

Giant pandas are among the world's most endangered species.
Statistics from the State Forestry Administration show some 1,590 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, and more than 210 live in captivity.

Reptiles pay price of fashion items.  CNTV - 07-18-2010

Watch Video

Every year millions of crocodiles, lizards, and snakes are slaughtered in Indonesia to fulfill the increasing demand of the fashion industry. Dian Estey looks behind the price tags at the cost to wildlife behind the fad.


The Making of Leather Handbags:

You can find almost any brands you can think of in Jakarta. And while more and more Indonesians are becoming brand savvy, what goes behind these line of branded products go unnoticed. PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, recently released a video showing the killing of reptiles to make these high-end branded products.
Irma, Animal Rights Activist, said, “We are against the usage of animal parts for fashion because we are in the opinion that it is not something essential or important”
Despite the efforts from various organizations, the practice continues. Indonesia is one of the main suppliers of reptile skins for the international fashion world.


Earth is much younger than previously thought

The Earth could be younger and more than three times as long to form than was previously thought, according to a new study.

 

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 11 Jul 2010

Earth
Earthrise viewed from the Apollo 11 mission's lunar orbit prior to landing Photo: EPA/NASA
Researchers have calculated that the planet could have taken far longer to form following the birth of the solar system 4.567 billion years ago than scientists have previously believed.
By comparing chemical isotopes from the Earth's mantle with those from meteorites, geologists at the University of Cambridge claim the planet reached its current size around 4.467 billion years ago.
Scientists have in the past estimated that the Earth's development, a process known as accretion where gas, dust and other material clumped together to form the planet, happened over just 30 million years.  But the new research suggests this process may have taken up to 100 million years – more than three times.

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, however, the researchers claim that while the Earth probably grew to 60% of its current size relatively quickly, the process may well have then slowed, taking about 100 million years in all.  “The whole issue hinges on working out how long it took for the core of the Earth to form, which is one of the big unknowns in this area of science,” said Dr John Rudge, one of the authors at the University of Cambridge.

“One of the problems has been that scientists usually presume Earth's accretion happened at an exponentially decreasing rate.  "We believe that the process may not have been that simple and that it could well have been a much more staggered, stop-start affair.”

The accretion of the Earth involved a series of collisions between large pieces of debris, known as planetary embryos.  The huge levels of heat created by these impacts caused the interior of the growing planet to melt, creating the molten metal core at the centre of the Earth and the mantle above it.

Many scientists believe that the final part of the process happened when a body roughly the size of Mars collided with the Earth and caused part of the planet to break off, forming the Moon.

The research team used measurements of the levels of chemical isotopes created during the accretion of the Earth, providing a form of geological clock.
The Earth's isotope levels were then compared with samples taken from meteorites that have hit our planet in modern history.  These meteorites are a kind of time capsule that have isotope levels similar to those present in the original material that clumped together when the solar system formed.

Differences in the isotopic values of Earth tungsten and that taken from the meteorites was able to provide the researchers with information about how long accretion took.

Dr Rudge and his colleagues used computer models to calculate how the Earth could have formed to match the levels of isotope decay found in the planet's mantle.
They showed that the Earth almost certainly could not have formed within 30 million years but instead grew very quickly, reaching two-thirds of its size within about 10 to 40 million years.

The accretion process then slowed and took up to another 70 million years to complete.  “If correct, that would mean the Earth was about 100 million years in the making altogether,” said Dr Rudge said.

“We estimate that makes it about 4.467 billion years old – a mere youngster compared with the 4.537 billion-year-old planet we had previously imagined.”

Traces found of the earliest Britons from 900,000 years ago

The Independent  By Steve Connor, Science Editor  08.07.2010.


An artist's impression of Norfolk's prehistoric beasts and humans

John Sibbick 

An artist's impression of Norfolk's prehistoric beasts and humans

Mammoths trampled the undergrowth, giant elk stalked the land, and hyenas and sabre-toothed cats took no hostages. This was normal for Norfolk 800,000 years ago, according to scientists who have found the earliest evidence of human settlement in Britain.

Excavations on a Norfolk beach near the village of Happisburgh have unearthed more than 70 flint tools that had been honed by the first-known prehistoric people to live in Britain. 

The stone tools have been dated to between 1 million and 800,000 years old. Scientists said the flint tools were probably used by these early Britons for cutting meat or piercing animal skins. Until the discovery of the tools, there was little evidence to suggest that prehistoric humans of this period lived further north than the Alps and the Pyrenees.

No human fossils have yet been uncovered from the site so scientists do not yet know which species of prehistoric human lived there, but they believe the most likely candidate was homo antecessor, or "Pioneer Man", who was living at about the same time in caves on the Iberian peninsua.

Other fossilised remains from the Norfolk excavations showed that the area was on the edge of a cool, northern "boreal" forest within walking distance of a nearby estuary where the ancient River Thames emptied into the North Sea, many miles further north than the position of the present Thames Estuary. The land mass, which was still connected to mainland Europe, would have teemed with an array of plants and animals, from tiny voles to giant elk with ten-foot antlers.

"The flood plain would have been dominated by grass, supporting a diverse range of herbivores, such as mammoth, rhino and horses," said Simon Parfitt of University College London, who was the lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. "Predators would have included hyenas, sabre-toothed cats and, of course, humans."

Fossil beetles and pollen suggest the summers were slightly warmer than today but the winters were considerably colder, similar to those of southern Scandinavia now. This implies that these early Britons were likely to have used fire, clothed themselves in animal skins, and used food stores to see them through winter.

Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, and director of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, said that the discovery of man-made stone tools in the Happisburgh excavations suggested a much earlier occupation of Britain than previously supposed.

"These finds are by far the earliest known evidence of humans in Britain, dating at least 100,000 years earlier than previous discoveries," he said. "They have significant implications for our understanding of early human behaviour, adaptations and survival, as well as when and how our early forebears colonised Europe after their first departure from Africa." Whoever made the stone tools, they were not the direct ancestors of present-day Britons. Professor Stringer said that there were at least nine separate colonisations of Britain over the past 1 million years with the eight previous colonisations dying out with each subsequent ice age.

Nick Ashton of the British Museum said that the discovery shows that early humans were capable of coping with the cold winters and short winter daylight of a northern climate. "This demonstrates early humans surviving in a climate cooler than that of the present day," Dr Ashton said.

Car fuel made from carbon dioxide and sunlight

New technology for "photosynthesising" fuel could lead to cars running on "petrol" made from carbon dioxide and sunlight. 

By Tom Chivers  02.07.2010


The solar reactor at the Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Car fuel made from carbon dioxide and sunlight
The solar reactor at the Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo: SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
Solar-powered reactors can take carbon dioxide and turn it into carbon monoxide. The same reactors can also be used to turn water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The two can then be reacted together with a catalyst to form hydrocarbon fuels, in a technique known as the Fischer-Tropsch process.

Fuels made in this way are sufficiently similar to those currently used in cars that major redesigns of engines and refuelling stations should not be necessary. If fuels can be made entirely from atmospheric carbon, running a car on that fuel would be carbon neutral.

One such machine, the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5), created by a team of scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, captures carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust fumes. In the future, however, they hope to extract it directly from the air.

The system uses a giant parabolic mirror, which concentrates sunlight on to two chambers separated by spinning rings of cerium oxide. As the rings turn, the cerium oxide is heated to 1500C and releases oxygen into one of the chambers. The oxygen is then pumped away.

As the ring spins, the now de-oxidised cerium moves into the other chamber. Carbon dioxide is pumped in, and the deoxidised cerium steals one of the oxygen molecules, creating carbon monoxide and cerium oxide.
Another team, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, uses a similar system, but with calcium oxide, zinc oxide and steam, which can create a stream of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Their system can already use atmospheric carbon dioxide.

At the moment the two reactors have problems. The New Mexico team's system currently only works for a few seconds at a time, while the Swiss model runs at a mere 10 kilowatts. But both hope to improve reliability and yield.

Creating usable fuel from solar energy is a promising way of keeping the world's energy demands satisfied while minimising carbon emissions, Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford University, California told New Scientist. "This area holds out the promise for technologies that can produce large amounts of carbon-neutral power at affordable prices, which can be used where and when that power is needed," he says.

"It is one of the few technology areas that could truly revolutionise our energy future."

Story via New Scientist.

Fossil sperm whale with huge teeth found in Peruvian desert

The ancient whale used its giant interlocking teeth to hold prey, inflict deep wounds and tear chunks off it. Fossil remains of Leviathan melvillei were found in the Pisco-Ica desert

Artist's impression of giant sperm whale Leviathan melvilleiView larger picture The sperm whale Leviathan melvillei attacking a baleen whale. Fossil fragments of its skull, jaw and teeth were found in Peru. Artist's impression: C. Letenneur/Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Fossil hunters have recovered the remains of an ancient sperm whale that boasted one of the largest bites of any predator that ever lived.
The beast, named Leviathan melvillei after the author of Moby Dick, Herman Melville, had a skull 3 metres long with teeth in its upper and lower jaws that grew to an extraordinary 36cm long.

Remains of the whale, including large fragments of its skull, lower jaw and teeth, were found in the sands of the Pisco-Ica desert on the south coast of Peru in 2008, but details of the discovery have only now been released.

The extinct whale is thought to have lived between 12m and 13m years ago and was probably a top predator alongside the 20-metre-long giant shark, Carcharocles megalodon, using its huge jaws to capture and kill other marine creatures, such as smaller baleen whales.
"This was probably one of the most powerful predators ever found," said Olivier Lambert, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in Paris, who led the study. "I don't think such large teeth have ever been found before."
The team, which included researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the natural history museums of Rotterdam, Pisa, Lima and Brussels, believe the whale was between 13.5 metres and 17.5 metres long, a similar size to modern sperm whales.

"This sperm whale could firmly hold large prey with its interlocking teeth, inflict deep wounds and tear large pieces from the body of the victim," the researchers write in the journal Nature (vol 466, p 105).

The remains were found in a region of the Pisco-Ica desert that was a shallow lagoon when the whale was alive. The remains of a rich variety of other marine species, including baleen whales, beaked whales, dolphins, porposies, sharks, turtles, seals and sea birds, have been found at the site. Many of the carcasses were probably washed there after the animals died.
Several lineages of sperm whale were alive during the Miocene epoch, from 5m to 24m years ago, but they suddenly became much less diverse during climatic cooling at the end of the epoch.

Today, there are only three living species: the sperm whale, the pygmy sperm whale and the dwarf sperm whale. Modern sperm whales have smaller teeth in the lower jaw and are almost toothless in the upper jaw. They feed on squid at depth, which they capture by sucking in water.
"This new specimen should give us additional information about the past diversity of sperm whales," said Lambert.
The fossil will join a collection at the Natural History Museum in Lima, Peru.

Why don't we trust climate scientists?

New study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals huge disparities in the 'relative scientific credibility' of the opposing sides of the climate change debate

  •  From Stabford University - California
An iceberg melts in Greeland in 2007. Climate change. Environment. Global warming. Photograph: John McConnico/AP An iceberg melts in Greenland in 2007. A new study shows 97% of climate scientists agree that we are changing the climate. Photograph: John McConnico/AP
Trust is, perhaps, the most important word within the climate debate at present. "Who do you trust?" is the question that hangs over every discussion on the topic.
Do you trust the vast majority of climate scientists who claim that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing a clear and present climatic danger? Or do you trust the much smaller band of sceptical climate scientists who argue that there isn't a problem?
In much of our lives, we rely on the testimony and views of experts. We do so when we feel ill and choose to visit the doctor. We do so when we want to reduce our tax liabilities. We do so when we wish to be ably represented in a court of law. We do so when a strange noise appears from the engine of our car. We will often pay good money to benefit from the many years of training and experience offered by experts in their field - be they doctors, accountants, lawyers or mechanics.
Climate science is a little different, it seems. A notably large – and growing - proportion of society appears to be rejecting the expert view of climatologists and choosing instead to place their trust elsewhere. Needless to say, this has confounded many who work within the climate sciences, but the causes are myriad and much discussed.

But an interesting new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences throws some new light on the "expertise gap" that some within the climate debate have noted exists between the two increasingly divided factions.

The authors, led by Professor Steve Schneider at Stanford University, have conducted an extensive literature review to establish the identities, views and respective authority of 1,372 climate researchers whose work "constitutes expertise or credibility in technical and policy-relevant scientific research". One of the principal goals of the study, say the authors, was to "examine a metric of climate-specific expertise and a metric of overall scientific prominence as two dimensions of expert credibility in two groups of researchers". In other words, they wanted to provide a tool to those outside the climate sciences to help them better assess which experts to trust.

A broad analysis of the climate scientist community itself, the distribution of credibility of dissenting researchers relative to agreeing researchers, and the level of agreement among top climate experts, has not been conducted and would inform future ACC [anthropogenic climate change] discussions. Here, we use an extensive dataset of 1,372 climate researchers and their publication and citation data to show that 1) 97-98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; and 2) the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers.

If you get the chance to read the study in full, please do. It includes a detailed explanation of their chosen methodology, including how they nullified the potential influence of "possible cliques" among published scientists.

But the central idea seems to be that the more a scientist gets their work published and cited in "climate-relevant publications", the more credibility they should be accorded as an "expert" in that field. Nothing revolutionary in this, of course: it's the way it works in any academic discipline. However, it is still illuminating to see their findings laid out so succinctly.
We provide the first large-scale quantitative assessment of the relative level of agreement, expertise and prominence in the climate researcher community. We show that the expertise and prominence, two integral components of overall expert credibility, of climate researchers convinced by the evidence of ACC vastly overshadows that of the climate change sceptics and contrarians. This divide is even starker when considering the top researchers in each group. Despite media tendencies to present "both sides" in ACC debates, which can contribute to continued public misunderstanding regarding ACC, not all climate researchers are equal in scientific credibility and expertise in the climate system. This extensive analysis of the mainstream versus sceptical/contrarian researchers suggests a strong role for considering expert credibility in the relative weight of and attention to these groups of researchers in future discussions in media, policy, and public forums regarding anthropogenic climate change.
One other interesting nugget from the study: "From the ~60% of researchers where year of PhD. was available, mean year of receiving a PhD. for UE [unconvinced by the evidence] researchers was 1977, versus 1987 for CE [convinced by the evidence] researchers, implying that UE researchers should have on average more publications due to an age-effect alone."

The study shows, however, that this is not the case. It's been noted before, of course, that sceptical climate scientists tend to be approaching retirement age, or are, in fact, already retired. What does this tell us? That wisdom comes with age? Or is this evidence of "retired man syndrome"; when scientists who have already seen the best days of their career pass them by develop a contrarian view in an attempt to seek validation and court attention?

Either way, I suspect this intriguing paper will court its own attention given the distrust that permeates in this debate. As ever, sceptics will reject it, whereas those who trust the message that 97% of climate scientists are telling us will nod their heads in acknowledgement

Albert Einstein  Science Weekly Live: What makes a genius?

In a special podcast recorded in front of an audience at London's Science Museum, Alok Jha and the panel explore what it means to be a genius

 

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/audio/2010/may/31/science-weekly-live-podcast-genius

  • WARNING: contains strong language.
They let us out of the studio to spend a night in the museum...
 
It was our first ever recording in front of a live audience, taking over part of London's Science Museum to discuss the nature of genius.
 
Making his first appearance on this podcast was genius personified Stephen Hawking, who opened a debate on The Genius of Britain at the museum's IMAX cinema earlier in the evening.  The theoretical physicist features in Channel 4's new TV series Genius of Britain: Scientists Who Changed the World which began on 30 May. You'll be able to catch up with any episodes you miss on 4oD.
 
We spoke to someone who could be considered a modern day genius, a man estimated to be worth more than a billion pounds, entrepreneur-inventor Sir James Dyson (inventor of a ball vacuum cleaner).
 
Our guest for the night, and helping us to nail the nature of genius, was psychologist Dr Kevin Dutton. Kevin is an expert on social influence. His new book Flipnosis is out now.
On our panel of Guardian genii were Nell Boase and science correspondent Ian Sample. Earlier we sent them roaming around the museum's Lates event: Nell tested her IQ, and Ian watched as the Babbage difference engine came to life.
 
We also handed the mic over to our audience to nominate their favourite genius and ask questions of the panel.
If you came along, thanks so much. We would love to get your feedback on the night. We hope you enjoyed it. You can add your comments below or tweet @iansample, @alokjha or @scienceweekly. Relive the night by keying #swlive.
View our pictures and upload your own to our Flickr photostream. (You'll need to log in and join our group).
Finally, our thanks to the wonderful staff at London's Science Museum.
WARNING: contains strong language.

World's deepest undersea volcanic vents

British explorers have filmed what are believed to be the world's deepest undersea volcanic vents, more than three miles under the Caribbean sea.

Experts aboard the RRS James Cook say they found the vent in an area known as the Cayman Trough, a gap in the ocean's bottom that served as the setting for James Cameron's underwater thriller The Abyss.
The vent's depth and isolation has raised hopes that new and exotic forms of life may be found basking in the warmth of the superheated mineral-rich water.

Experts hope the finding will yield insight into how life formed on Earth, and perhaps elsewhere too.
 

British team finds so-called 'hell on Earth' ITN 14.04.2010.

  • British explorers have found the world's deepest undersea volcanic vents more than three miles under the sea.

Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton made the discovery in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean using a remote-controlled robot submarine.

They discovered slender spires made of copper and iron ores.  The water being pumped out from of the so-called "black smokers" is hot enough to melt lead.

The area is almost half a mile deeper than has ever been seen before and, with extremely high water pressure, it is tantamount to a "hell on Earth".
The boiling water that gushes out from deep-sea vents helps to nourish colonies of marine creatures.

 

Made in China - millions of years ago

The Chinese government's attempts to curb the black-market trade in dinosaurs and other fossils could restrict scientific research.

By Lewis Smith
Dinosaur fossils in Kunming, southwest China
Dinosaur fossils in Kunming, southwest China Photo: AFP
 
When Harry Kreigstein bought a mysterious fossil encased in 150lb of rock at a palaeontology show six years ago, he was convinced it was special. It didn't disappoint.
 
Once the rock was stripped away, the fossilised animal was revealed to be a missing link in the ancestry of Tyrannosaurus rex, king of the ancient predators. Almost identical to the giant killer, yet just a fraction of the size – and 60 million years older – its discovery astonished scientists.

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The miniature T.rex is just one of a host of exceptional fossil finds that have emerged from China over the past 20 years. But tracking its history reveals a seamy underworld of black-market trading and overzealous regulation that threatens to restrict scientists' access to fossils, which could play a vital role in their efforts to explain how life evolved.
 
When Dr Kreigstein, an eye surgeon and collector from Martha's Vineyard, in the US, paid close to $100,000 for the fossil, he was told that it came from Japan. In fact, it had been dug up in China, and exported illegally.
 
Like countless other fossils, the tiny T.rex ancestor, which has been named Raptorex kreigsteini, was almost certainly found by one of the many thousands of farmers and agricultural workers who go digging to supplement their income. For them, discovering a particularly spectacular specimen can mean instant wealth, though most of the profit is believed to go to the middle men, who smuggle these fossils out of China for lucrative sales to dealers and collectors.
 
For fossils of most insects, fish and common plants, a farmer can expect to be paid several yuan – probably less than £1. But for the most impressive specimens of dinosaurs, ancient birds and early mammals they can make up to 500,000 yuan (about £45,000) – a fortune in a country where average earnings in rural areas are less than £400 per year.
 
So profitable is the trade, especially for unusual and scientifically important specimens, that fakes are also being created by sticking the fossils of different animals together. The most notorious was the half-bird, half-dinosaur fossil of Archaeoraptor liaoningensis, which was declared by National Geographic in 1999 to be the missing link between birds and dinosaurs – until Chinese researchers established that it was a composite of at least two separate creatures.
 
The reason why the trade has grown so large is that China has become the centre of the world's fossil industry. About a third of recent scientific papers in the field are either about remains discovered in China or involve Chinese paleontologists.
 
This is not just down to China's size, but to the extraordinary level of fossil preservation in at least three large sites. Millions of years ago, these areas boasted rich habitats bursting with a variety and quantity of wildlife, with rock beds enabling the specimens to be exceptionally well preserved.
 
Liaoning, near the north-east coast, provides enormous detail about the Cretaceous period, from 110 to 130 million years ago, a time when dinosaurs, birds, mammals and flowering plants were all diversifying rapidly. It is here that much of the evidence of early birds and feathered dinosaurs has been found. The ash and mud that covered the creatures' corpses prevented rapid decomposition, enabling soft body parts to fossilise rather than just the bones.
 
Next is the Chengjiang Formation, in south-west China, which dates from about 525 million years ago and tells the story of the "Cambrian explosion", the period when the ancestors of all modern creatures evolved. The Doushantuo Formation, also in south-west China and dating from 590 to 565 million years ago, throws a similar spotlight on Precambrian life, which was buried alive by sediment that poured suddenly into the coastal lagoons.
 
Between them, these areas have provided crucial evidence to support the idea that dinosaurs may have been feathered, such as a fossil of the Beipiaosaurus, revealed in January 2009, which had the best example of a feather yet seen. Such creatures are not just the most primitive yet unearthed, but the likely ancestors of modern birds: less than two months ago, a birdlike dinosaur with four feathered limbs, Anchiornis huxleyi, was dated as being older than the earliest known primitive bird, Archaeopteryx. Other Chinese fossils have contributed enormously to the understanding of the evolution of birds themselves. Among those that have been found are Eoconfuciusornis zhengi, one of the first birds to fly, and Gansus yumenensis, a 110 million-year-old specimen, which suggests all modern birds derived from waterfowl.
 
However, China's fossil riches face a twin threat – not just from treasure hunters, but from government regulation. In an understandable effort to crack down on the black-market trade, which has seen many of the best specimens vanish into private collections before scientists even know of their existence, the Chinese government is planning to introduce draconian new measures to prevent their export.
 
"There's a feeling that people are making a lot of money," explains Dr David Unwin, a paleontologist at the University of Leicester. "It's China's national heritage that's being lost."
However, he and others are worried that the new legislation, details of which are still unclear, will restrict "the ability of people to collect fossils or for fossils to end up in museums".
 
"The great fear is the legislation would impose its own problems. China does have some fantastic fossils and there are some amazing people working on them, who are leading the way in many areas. It would be a real shame if they were to be slowed down or even stopped," says Dr Unwin. "The trick will be to make laws that don't harm science but restrict those who do things illegally. There are always black markets in fossils. My great concern would be that legislation would create a bigger black market and would impact on science."
 
Zhou Zhonghe, a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, says that one of the prime aims of the new measures is to stop fossils being sold illicitly to collectors: "I have seen photos or specimens of so many valued fossils, but many – if not most of them – will probably rest in private homes or with unknown collectors."
 
He is hopeful that the new legislation will include guarantees to protect the needs of science, and has, along with other senior Chinese academics, approached legislators to try to get them to moderate the original draft legislation. They have been encouraged by some of the changes made, but remain uncertain about what the final draft will contain.
 
Among government proposals is the creation of a national committee of experts to assess the value of each dig permit, and fines of up to 500,000 yuan for people who break the law. Fossils will be classified as either important or general, and there will be new regulations on which fossils private collectors will be allowed to keep.
 
"The previous draft, announced earlier this year, did make us very worried," Prof Zhonghe said. "Since then, we have had several meetings with the legislators, who seemed to take on board our criticisms and to be willing to consider many of our suggestions – though not all of them. We will see what will be in the final regulation. Generally, we feel positive about this because we have asked for a more authoritative regulation on fossils."
 
Indeed, despite the concerns about the impact of new legislation, there is a widespread recognition that, without action, China's rich fossil beds will continue to be pillaged for the black market. Dr Unwin says the sheer scale of the problem means that it can only be "a sensible thing to do" to prevent a free-for-all.
 
Prof Paul Sereno, of the University of Chicago, has devoted much of the past two decades to the study of Chinese fossils. He was also the scientist who led the research into Dr Kreigstein's tiny T.rex ancestor, insisting that in return for Raptorex kreigsteini being named after the doctor's parents, Roman and Cecile, who survived the Holocaust, the 9ft-long fossil would be returned to China.
 
He warns that poorly designed legislation could drive the black market further underground and fail to halt the trade, to the detriment of scientists who do follow the rules.
"If there's a place to sell it, there's a way to get it there. Barriers could end up hindering science rather than the black market, which can always find back doors."

The immediate future is orange: Stunning pictures that herald the arrival of Autumn.

By Kate Loveys   2009.10.13.

The nights are drawing in and memories of summer heat are fading fast. Nature, however, has a way of softening the blow. Autumn has arrived with fiery colours and a few puffs of mist that give the countryside an otherworldly air.
Early risers who took a stroll along the Avon in Bath yesterday may have paused to admire the row of boats gently bobbing in their moorings. The trees along the riverbank were in a state of fabulous flux, some hanging on to the green of summer and others already changed to an earthier hue.

The early morning sun bursts through the trees as cooler temperatures bring on the autumn season at Dunham Massey, Altrincham

River Avon in Bath

Mist rises on the River Avon in Bath, where the changing colour of the trees is reflected in the water

  
 

Deciduous trees display autumn colours in Wendover Woods in Buckinghamshire

Canary Wharf,

A golden autumnal sunset at Canary Wharf in London

However, Britain should brace itself for the first frosts this week with forecasters predicting plunging night-time temperatures as we head towards winter.
Tonight temperatures across central and southern England are expected to plummet to 2C creating the most widespread frost of the year so far and signaling the beginning of cold weather.
The cold nights are setting in despite the country experiencing above average October temperatures and a prolonged dry spell. Met Office forecaster Stephen Holman said the expected frost would be the result of a combination of clear skies and cool air.
He said: 'There may be some ground frost in the mornings and some mist and fog patches, but these should disperse during the morning. It's because air temperatures are cooler and there will be cloudless skies. From Wednesday warmer air will circulate and cloud will set in, raising temperatures.'
Mr Holman said October has so far been a mild month: 'We have experienced temperatures a couple of degrees above average. London has had temperatures between 15C and 18C which is good for October.'
deer at Dunham Massey

That bucks me right up: A deer absorbs the morning sun at Dunham Massey

 
Barges and boats bob on the River Avon

Atmospheric: Barges and boats bob on the River Avon, shrouded in mist as the sun starts to shine

It has also been drier than average this month with only 20.6mm of rain falling in Manchester so far - the average for October is 86mm. Forecasters are predicting a 'gradual breakdown in the weather' next week as we head towards the winter months.
Frosts appear when air temperatures fall to about 2 or 3C, which often sends the temperature of grass, cars, pavements and tarmac to 0C or below.
The very first report of a frost this autumn was an isolated incident on Wednesday October 7 in remote Katesbridge, Northern Ireland, where freak temperatures dropped to minus 3.1C.

Wendover Woods

Golden brown: Deciduous trees display autumn colours in Wendover Woods in Buckinghamshire

The Houses of Parliament during sunset this evening

Westminster sunset: The Houses of Parliament as the sun goes down

The Met Office said this year’s first frost was on schedule and is predicting a warmer winter than last year, with 'slightly warmer than average' temperatures.
Motorists have been warned to heed the worsening weather by making basic checks on their vehicles including tyre tread-depth and fluid levels.
The AA has warned motorists to ensure their car windows are cleared before setting off on a journey, and to carry an ice scraper, de-icer, mobile phone with fully charged battery and a warm coat and boots.
The grey days of winter may be just around the corner - but until then, enjoy the show.
     Fallen Beech leaves display autumn colours in Wendover Woods. A deer  in the early morning as cooler temperatures bring on the autumn season at Dunham Massey 

Shortening daylight hours and cooler weather brings on the rutting season for Red and Fallow deer herds and cooler temperatures bring on the autumn foliage colours

Shortening daylight hours and cooler weather brings on the rutting season for Red and Fallow deer herds

Victoria Park in Bath

Carpet of leaves: Victoria Park in Bath is covered in fallen leaves as the early morning sunlight beams down.

More than 5,000 rare trees found in SW China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-06 17:50

GUIYANG: More than 5,000 dove trees have been discovered in Zhijin county of southwest China's Guizhou Province, local government sources said on Tuesday.

The local government sources said the trees, with the oldest ones dating back more than 800 years, have not only ornamental value but value in scientific research.

Dove trees have been included in the list of plants under state primary protection in China.

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Dove tree (Davidia Involucrata Baill), a sort of deciduous arbor, is regarded as living fossil in flora world with a history of 10 million years. Most species of dove trees have extinguished gradually. Only a few of them survived in part of southern China.

In addition to Guizhou, dove trees have been found in Shennongjia of central Hubei Province and Mount Emei in southwestern Sichuan Province.

Worker bees do it!  2009.09.10

She is said to be the mother of the hive, the queen of all she surveys. But behind her back, the queen bee's control might be slipping.
Amid all the buzzing, some worker bees cheat on their queen by reproducing for themselves to prolong their own lives, scientists have declared.
Bee-sexual? A study of bees in Brazil found some male bees are the sons of workers and not the queen (file picture)  A study of bees in Brazil found some male bees are the sons of workers and not the queen (file picture)
A study of a Brazilian species  -  Melipona scutellaris  -  found that some male bees are the sons of workers, rather than the queen bee.  Its colonies generally contain around 1,500 workers and are led by one single-mated queen.
The research, published in the Molecular Ecology journal, looked at nearly 600 males from 45 colonies and studied their genotypes to discover their parentage.  Results showed that 23 per cent of the males were sons of the workers, rather than the Queen. Worker bees are usually unable to mate, but are capable of laying unfertilised eggs which can develop into male offspring. 
 
To ensure dominance, the Queen usually eats any eggs laid by her workers.  The only benefit of workers producing their own offspring is that it allows them to live three times longer  -  giving them a life expectancy that almost matches the queens.  This is because workers who reproduce do less work and don't carry out risky tasks such as foraging.
Co-author Denise Alves said,  'These results are the first explicit demonstration that conflict over male parentage in insect societies is not just played out between the queen and workers.'

Beautiful creatures that live under the sea off our coast.  By Daily Mail Reporter  2009.08.28.
Fluorescent sea slugs, cunningly camouflaged scorpions - some creatures you would expect to find in exotic waters.  They have all been found - and photographed all just off the English coast.
All the creatures pictured below were found by divers in the North Sea, off Norfolk.
Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Taurulus bubalis

High ferocity: Long-Spined Sea Scorpions change colour to disguise themselves so they can ambush their prey

The Snake pipefish, Entelurus aequoreus

Beady eyed: Snake Pipefish are related to seahorses and are becoming ever more common in British waters

Velvet Swimming crab, Necora pube

Claws: Fearless scavengers, Velvet Swimming Crabs are so-called because their shells are covered in tiny bristles

Tompot Blenny, Parablennius gattorugine

Smile please: Tompot Blenny were believed to be extinct in the North Sea until spotted off Weybourne in 2007. They are rarely over 6in long

Common Prawn

Little nippler: A common prawn has ten long legs, some of which have claws. At 2.5in, they can live up for five years

Norfolk slug,

Secrets seas: An adult sea slug sits atop a ship wreck hunting for its favourite food - tiny jelly fish

Peacock fanworms

Fancy that: Delicate Peacock Fanworms filter feed with their retractable feathery tentacles

Elegant Anemone

Sticky fingers: Elegant anemones use their stinging tentacles to trap food

Lightbulb Sea Squirts

Positively glowing: Just half the size of your little finger, the Lightbulb Sea Squirt uses its glass-like clusters to filter seawater and extract plankton

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1209615/Great-Barrier-Reef-No--Norfolk-Beautiful-creatures-live-sea-coasts.html#ixzz0PU5jjIPf

A real bolt from the blue: The moment 300,000 volt lightning tore open night sky

By Daily Mail Reporter 2009.08.28.
This spectacular image shows the awesome moment when a 300,000 volt bolt of lightning tore open the night sky.
Briton Vince Narduzzo was enjoying a glass of red wine in the garden of his second home in France when blasts of thunder shattered the evening calm.
The 49-year-old from Hertfordshire dashed inside to grab a camera, in time to capture the progress of one of the streaks of lightning over the hamlet in Charente Maratime, near La Rochelle.
lightning

Spectacular: Caught on camera is the amazing lightning strike near La Rochelle, France

'I was shaking from sheer awe at it - then it occurred to me that the lighting bolt was so close to me that it might have been my last ever picture,' he said.
In his photograph the branches on the lightning bolt appear thinner. In fact, they are simply less bright.
The digital camera was unable to cope with the brightness of the main streak and turned it into a thick blurry line.
Lightning is the discharge of electricity from clouds. A bolt can travel at speeds of 130,000mph and – for a few millionths of a second - it produces one million, million watts of power.
It can heat up the surrounding air to 55,000f – five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
It is triggered when electrical charges build up in storm clouds.
Scientists are unsure what causes this build-up but believe it may be caused by the movement of ice crystals.
Once the charge is powerful enough, an invisible flow of electrons flows from the cloud to the ground in a zig-zag pattern.
As it approaches the ground, positively charged particles are attracted upwards. It is this current, called the return stroke, that appears as a bright flash.
Heat from lightning causes the air around it to expand rapidly – creating a dramatic crash of thunder.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209578/Tearing-open-heavens-real-bolt-blue.html#ixzz0PU3vgaKy

Vast oceans lay beneath surface of the Earth. 2009.08.20.

Vast oceans may lay beneath the Earth's surface, new research suggests.

Scientists believe areas of enhanced electrical conductivity in the mantle - the thick region between the Earth's crust and its core - betray the presence of water.   Water divining researchers produced a global three-dimensional map of the mantle showing the areas through which electricity flowed most freely.
 
Conductivity hot spots were found to coincide with subduction zones, sites where the tectonic plates that divide up the Earth's surface are being forced downwards.
This was a surprise since subducting plates are colder than the surrounding mantle rock, and should therefore be less conductive.
 
The anomaly is best explained by water being drawn downwards by the subduction process and increasing conductivity, say the scientists.   ''The model clearly shows a close association between subduction zones and high conductivity, and the simplest explanation is water,'' said Professor Adam Schultz, from Oregon State University in the US, who co-led the study published in the journal Nature.
 
Colleague Professor Gary Egbert, also at Oregon State, added: ''In fact, we don't really know how much water there is on Earth. There is some evidence that there is many times more water below the ocean floor than there is in all the oceans of the world combined. Our results may shed some light on this question.''
 
Other possible reasons for enhanced conductivity in the mantle include raised levels of iron or carbon, said the researchers.  The presence of water could also be explained in different ways.
 
''If it isn't being subducted down with the plates, how did it get there?'' said Prof Schultz. ''Is it primordial, down there for four billion years? Or did it indeed come down as the plates slowly subduct, suggesting that the planet may have been much wetter a long time ago? These are fascinating questions, for which we do not yet have answers.''
 
The scientists used three decades of magnetic field soundings made by more than 100 Earth observatories to construct their map.   Next they hope to repeat the study with more recent data both from ground bases and satellites.

Lightning strikes! The 40-mile lightning bolt that shot UPWARDS from storm cloud.  By Claire Bates  2009.08.24.

Enlarge   Upwards lightning

Upwards lightning has only been captured on film on a handful of occasions

A very rare photograph of 'upwards lightning' streaming 40 miles from the top of a storm has been captured by scientists.
 
These rarely seen, highly charged meteorological events are known as gigantic jets, and they flash up to the lower levels of space, or ionosphere.  While they don't occur every time there is lightning, the electrical fingerprints are far larger than their downward striking cousins.
 
'Despite poor viewing conditions as a result of a full moon and a hazy atmosphere, we were able to clearly capture the gigantic jet,' said study leader Steven Cummer, from Duke University.
 
Images of gigantic jets have only been recorded on five occasions since 2001. The Duke University team caught a one-second view and magnetic field measurements that are now giving scientists a much clearer understanding of these rare events.  'Our measurements show that gigantic jets are capable of transferring a substantial electrical charge to the lower ionosphere,' Professor Cummer said.
 
'They are essentially upward lightning from thunderclouds that deliver charge just like conventional cloud-to-ground lightning. What struck us was the size of this event.'
It appears from the measurements that the amount of electricity discharged by conventional lightning and gigantic jets is comparable, Professor Cummer said.
 
But the gigantic jets travel farther and faster than conventional lightning because thinner air between the clouds and ionosphere provides less resistance.  Whereas a conventional lightning bolt follows a six-inch channel and travels about 4.5 miles down to earth, the gigantic jet recorded by the scientists contained multiple channels and travelled about 40 miles upward.
Mystery
Scientists don't know what conditions or what types of storms are conducive to gigantic jet formation.  It has been difficult in the past to obtain images of gigantic jets because they occur so quickly that cameras have to be trained on them at the precise moment they occur.
 
Professor Cummer caught the gigantic jet almost by accident. The equipment had been set to capture another phenomenon known as sprites, which were first photographed in 1989.
Sprites are electrical discharges that occur above storm clouds and are colored red or blue, with jellyfish-like tendrils hanging down.
 
Professor Cummer maintains a low-light video camera trained to the sky and programmed to start recording when specific meteorological conditions occur.  At the same time, other equipment constantly measures radio emissions in the same sector to capture electrical events. A special GPS system ensures that the readings from all the equipment are synchronized.
 
A paper reporting the results appears online today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

OTHER WEIRD AND WONDERFUL BOLTS FROM THE BLUE...

red sprite
Blue jets

Red sprites (left) and blue jets (right) are types of lightning that only last a tenth of a second

  • RED SPRITES
Sprites are massive but weak luminous flashes that appear directly above an active thunderstorm system. Sprites are usually red and can reach up to 60 miles. They last only up to a tenth of a second.
  • BLUE JETS
These jets form narrow cones of around 15 degrees, fanning out and disappearing at heights of about 25miles above the thundercloud. They last for about a tenth of a second.
ball lightning

Ball lightning has been documented over hundreds of years, like this illustration from 1866

  • BALL LIGHTNING
More than 10,000 cases of ball lightning have been recorded over hundreds of years. People have described seeing glowing orbs the size of a tennis ball floating near the ground. They have so far defied scientific explanation.
  • ELVES
Elves are rapidly expanding disk-shaped regions of luminosity that spread up to 300 miles across in the ionosphere. They last less than a thousandth of a second.

elves and sprites

Elves and red sprites have been captured over the Pacific


Midnight sun: Night-shining clouds light up dark skies of Britain.  By Jaya Narain and Claire Bates 2009.06.30.

With the sun dappled across these white clouds and a deep blue sky, it appears dawn is about to break.  But this remarkable photograph of an English rural landscape near was taken at midnight and shows the rare phenomenon of 'night shining.'
 
The shimmering clouds form at an altitude of around 55 miles above sea level and are made up of tiny ice droplets. Because they are so high up in the atmosphere the sun is able to illuminate the clouds from below the horizon.
 
Called 'noctilucent' clouds, which literally means 'night-shining' in Latin, they are normally spotted in polar regions during the summer months.  But stunned residents spotted a rare glimpse of the clouds lighting up Leicester's skyline shortly after midnight on Thursday morning.
Noctilucent

'Noctilucent' or 'night-shining' clouds form at the edge of space over Leicester at midnight

Noctilucent cloud formations are the highest on Earth where temperatures can plunge below -130C (-200F) and winds peak at 300mph. They appear in the mesosphere, which is between 30miles and 50miles above the Earth's surface. 
 
Clouds are made up of ice crystals and scientists are baffled as to how these form in a arid layer that is several million times drier than the Sahara Desert. But their prevalence in the summer months might be one clue.
 
'Upwelling winds in the summertime carry water vapor from the moist lower atmosphere toward the mesosphere,' Gary Thomas from the University of Colorado said.
 
The water droplets also need dust particles to stick to to create the ice crystals. This could explain why the phenomenon was first recorded in 1885, two years after the Krakatoa eruption, when several tonnes of carbon dioxide, ash and dust were emitted into the atmosphere.
 
However scientists do not know why the clouds have become more common since then rather than fading away. They have speculated that debris from space may be the answer.
 
Professor Nick Mitchell, director at the Centre for Space, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Bath, said: 'These are beautiful and extremely special cloud formations that are a wonderful sight in our skyline.
The startling illumination is caused by the sun's light reflecting back down on the Earth

The startling illumination is caused by the sun's light reflecting back down on the Earth


'They are only visible on very clear nights during the summer months. Even after the sun has set it can still shine on the cloud formations because they are so high up.   'If people look to the north on clear summer nights after 11pm they can often catch a glimpse of these amazing clouds. Noctilucent clouds certainly seem to be spotted with more frequency today and they are appearing brighter than ever.'
 
Nasa launched the AIM satellite in 2007 (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) to try and discover why the clouds are forming and why they are changing.   It orbits 373 miles above Earth and has three instruments on board to chart the life-cycle of the clouds.
 
One takes pictures of the clouds, another measures the temperature of the mesosphere and how much water vapor and other gasses are present and the third sees how much dust from meteors enters Earth's atmosphere.
Despite the beauty of the clouds, scientists fear the clouds could be a sign of changes in the upper atmosphere because of global warming.
 
'One plausible explanation is that temperatures where the clouds form (in the higher atmosphere) have become colder with time due to the build up in the lower atmosphere of greenhouse gases from human activities.'

Swamp lake: Family of swans struggle through pond overrun by green weeds brought on by hot weather.  By Matt Sandy  2009.06.03  One day they were swanning around happily in crystal clear waters.  The next, this family was having to paddle through a thick layer of algae that had sprung up in the heat of early summer sun.  Swan Lake turned into Swamp Lake in less than 24 hours, forcing the mother to clear a path for her mont-old signets.

Ponds can be free of the algae for years and suddenly become infested, according to experts.   Weekend temperatures reached 25C produced perfect growth conditions at Bourne Mill in Colchester, Essex.

Scientists unveil stunning fossil.  Missing link in man's evolution.

By Tom Leonard in New York .  2009.05.20
A 47 million year old primate fossil known as 'Ida' said to be the most complete fossil primate ever found.   Ida is so perfectly preserved that there are still traces of her last meal in her stomach - and outlines of her fur can be seen etched into the stone Ida is so perfectly preserved that there are still traces of her last meal in her stomach - and outlines of her fur can be seen etched into the stone .  The 47 year old primate fossil is said to be the most complete fossil primate ever found.
 
The fossil of a young female, probably resembling a modern-day lemur, has been described as the "most complete primate fossil ever found" and could be the common ancestor of all monkeys and apes, including humans.  Details of the discovery were revealed at the Museum of Natural History in New York and will be the subject of a BBC documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough.

Related Articles

The skeleton, nicknamed Ida and 95 per cent complete, was discovered around 25 years ago in the Messel Pit near Frankfurt, a crater lake famous for fossils.  Split into two parts which ended up in separate collections, its significance was only recently understood after the complete fossil was subjected to a two-year investigation by a team led by Jorn Hurum of the University of Oslo.
 
The discovery is not "the" missing link - the contentious theory that humans and chimpanzees share a common identity - but scientists involved still hailed it as the "most significant scientific discovery of recent times".
 
It has been named Darwinius masillae and investigators claim it will finally confirm irrefutably Sir Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
 
The creature, about the size of a cat, has human-like nails instead of claws and opposable big toes. The fossil even reveals the remains of her last meal, prompting researchers to conclude she was a fruit and leaf eater, and the outline of her fur.
 
She is not a direct ancestor of humans and monkeys but it provides a good indication of what such an animal may have looked like.  Sir David Attenborough said: "This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals. This is the one that connects us directly with them."  "Now people can say, 'OK, we are primates. Show us the link'. The link they would have said up to now is missing - well, it's no longer missing."

 
 
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