Gizmorama - August 12, 2013

Good Morning,

Researchers believe that a cosmic impact may have led to the early "Clovis" people to be wiped out over 12,900 years ago. Should we be worried about what the cosmos has in-store for us?

Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Variation in water jets on Saturn moon said evidence of deep oceans --*
PASADENA, Calif. - The strength of jets of water and organic particles spouting from Saturn's moon Enceladus depends on the moon's proximity to the ringed planet, astronomers say. Data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have shown differences in the amount of spray emanating from the moon are tied to its distance from Saturn as it orbits the planet, the space agency reported Thursday. The first clear observation that a bright plume emanating from Enceladus' south pole varies predictably adds to evidence that a liquid water reservoir or ocean lurks under the icy surface of the moon, scientists said. "The jets of Enceladus apparently work like adjustable garden hose nozzles," lead study author Matt Hedman at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said. "The nozzles are almost closed when Enceladus is closer to Saturn and are most open when the moon is farthest away. We think this has to do with how Saturn squeezes and releases the moon with its gravity." The jets were discovered in 2005 by Cassini, which has been orbiting the ringed planet since 2004. "The way the jets react so responsively to changing stresses on Enceladus suggests they have their origins in a large body of liquid water," said Christophe Sotin, Cassini team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Liquid water was key to the development of life on Earth, so these discoveries whet the appetite to know whether life exists everywhere water is present."


*-- Cosmic impact may have led to demise of early North American peoples --*
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - North America may have suffered a large cosmic impact about 12,900 years ago that led to the demise of the early "Clovis" people, researchers say. Data from ice cores taken from Greenland show a layer of platinum during the same age as a known, abrupt climate transition, researchers at Harvard University reported. The finding supports suggestions of an impact that tipped the climate into a colder phase that may have led to the extinction of large mammals such as the mammoth, widespread wildfires, and rapid changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation, they said. Researcher Michail Petaev and Harvard colleagues, writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said a 100-fold increase in platinum concentration occurs in ice that is around 12,890 years old, the same period for which oxygen isotope measurements show rapid cooling of the climate. Debris thrown into the atmosphere in an impact may have tipped the Earth into global cooling, they said, difficult for ecologies and societies to adjust to. Such cooling has been put forward as the cause of the extinction of massive mammals like the mammoth and native cultures such as the Clovis people in North America.


*-- New antibiotic from oceans could treat 'super-bug' infections --*
SAN DIEGO - A new antibiotic compound found in marine microorganisms in sediments off the coast of California could help defeat resistant infections, researchers say. The discovery of a completely new class of antibiotics is rare, and raises hopes of effected treatments for infections like MRSA and anthrax that pose a serious threat to human health, experts said. The new compound, anthracimycin, seems to be effective in combating such infections because its structure is unlike any previously-reported natural antibiotic. It was extracted from Streptomyces bacteria collected in Pacific Ocean sediments. "The real importance of this work is that anthracimycin has a new and unique chemical structure," research leader William Fenical of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said. "The discovery of truly new chemical compounds is quite rare. This discovery adds to many previous discoveries that show that marine bacteria are genetically and chemically unique." "It's not just one discovery. It opens up the opportunity to develop analogues -- potentially hundreds," Fenical said in a Scripps release. "Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin in 1928 and from that more than 25 drugs were developed. When you find a new antibiotic structure, it goes beyond just one."

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