Gizmorama

December 8, 2010
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Give Your Wrist Some Relief When Working at the Computer.
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Good Morning,

Scientists predict that within the next 100 years, farmers
will have to change up their strategies to compensate for
overall climate change. Check out all the details on this
revolutionary prediction in the third article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Find could change search for alien life

WASHINGTON - A U.S. researcher says she has found an Earthly
bacteria that breaks the biochemical "rules" all life on the
planet was thought to follow. All known life on Earth is
based on a single genetic model that requires six essential
elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and
phosphorus. But biochemist Felisa Wolfe-Simon has discovered
a bacterium that has five of those essential elements but
has, in effect, replaced phosphorus with its look-alike but
toxic cousin arsenic, The Washington Post reported. At a NASA
news conference Thursday, the researcher said the discovery
opens the door to the possibility of the existence of a
theorized "shadow biosphere" on Earth -- life evolved from
a different common ancestor than all that we've known so
far -- and could impact the search for life on alien worlds.
"Our findings are a reminder that life-as-we-know-it could
be much more flexible than we generally assume or can
imagine," Wolfe-Simon, a member of the National Astrobiology
Institute team at Arizona State University, says. "If
something here on Earth can do something so unexpected --
that breaks the unity of biochemistry -- what else can life
do that we haven't seen yet?" she said. Her research, funded
through NASA and conducted with samples from California's
Mono Lake, found some of the bacteria not only used arsenic
to live, but had arsenic embedded in their DNA, RNA and
other basic chemistry. "This is different from anything
we've seen before," said Mary Voytek of NASA's program in
astrobiology, involved specifically in the search for life
beyond Earth and for how life began here. The discovery goes
to one of the central challenges of astrobiology: knowing
what to look for in the search for extraterrestrial life.
"One of the guiding principles in the search for life on
other planets, and of our astrobiology program, is that we
should 'follow the elements,' " ASU biogeochemist Ariel Anbar
says. "Felisa's study teaches us that we ought to think
harder about which elements to follow."


New bacteria found living on Titanic wreck

OTTAWA - A new bacteria has been found in the wreck of the
Titanic, growing in "rusticles," icicle-like structures on
the ship's rusting iron, Canadian researchers say. The pre-
viously unknown bacteria, Halomonas titanicae, was found in
samples of rusticles taken from the Titanic by the Mir 2
robotic submersible in 1991, the BBC reported Monday. Re-
searchers from Dalhousie University and the Ontario Science
Center in Canada and the University of Seville in Spain iso-
lated the bacteria from those samples. DNA sequencing showed
them to be a new species of the Halomonas genus found in
salt water environments. The bacteria may shed light on the
mechanism by which rusticles form and the "recycling" that
such microbes carry out on submerged metal structures, the
researchers said. Such findings could have relevance to the
protection of offshore oil and gas pipelines and the safe
disposal at sea of ships and oil rigs, they said. The find
has been published in the journal International Journal of
Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.


Climate change may mean new crop strategy

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Farmers in the U.S. Midwest could get
permanent Southern-style weather if future climate change
projections are accurate, researchers say. Scientists at
Purdue University say warmer average temperatures and pre-
cipitation extremes in the Corn Belt could force farmers to
shift to more climate-appropriate crops or management strat-
egies, a university release said Monday. Indiana's climate
by the year 2100 could be like that of Virginia in the winter
and Oklahoma in the summer, Purdue agricultural economist
Otto Doering says. Winter temperatures in Virginia average
in the mid- to upper 40s, and Oklahoma summer days regularly
top 90 degrees. As the climate changes, farmers will be con-
fronted with major meteorological challenges, Doering says.
"Rainfall variability with a smaller number of storms over
the growing season and more intense storms are things we'll
have to watch out for," Doering says. "Then there's temper-
ature. One area of concern is warmer winters," he says.
"That might mean pests wouldn't be wiped out as much like
on those days in January where it's below zero and the cold
permeates the ground." A possible benefit from warmer annual
temperatures is the prospect of more farmers growing soybeans
and winter wheat in the same crop year. "Double cropping,"
as it is called, is practiced in Indiana mostly in southern
counties because temperatures warm earlier in the spring and
remain warm later into the fall. "I think we'll see more of
the soybean-wheat double crop moving northward in Indiana,
to the point where in 30 or 40 years we may see this kind of
opportunity very viable for central Indiana," Doering said.


Japanese probe enters orbit around Venus

TOKYO - Japan says it is waiting to re-establish contact
with its Akatsuki probe as it enters orbit around Venus after
a six-month flight to the cloud-shrouded planet. The main
engine of the spacecraft was fired late Monday in a maneuver
intended to allow the Venus' gravity to capture the probe.
Akatsuki then lost contact with Earth as it moved behind
Venus, the BBC reported. Japanese scientists said they would
know by late Tuesday whether the operation to insert the sat-
ellite into the correct orbit had been successful. The 1,100-
pound spacecraft carries five cameras that are sensitive in
the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic
spectrum to allow studies of the planet's surface through the
thick cloud cover. Akatsuki will not be alone at Venus; it
will join the European Space Agency's Venus Express craft
that arrived at the planet in 2006, and the two spacecraft
are due to conduct joint observations, the BBC said.

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