Gizmorama - May 20, 2013

Good Morning,

Okay, when you find tiny fossil ear bones how would you come to the conclusion that they would suggest evolutionary origins of human speech? Think about it.

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

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Tiny fossil ear bones suggest evolutionary origins of human speech --*
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A study of two human ancestors from South Africa suggests evolution of the bones of the middle ear determined what they could hear, researches say. A combination of ape-like and human-like features in the bones inside the ear of two ancient hominin species suggests they may have begun to evolve what earlier so-called austrolopiths lacked -- a sensitivity to the midrange frequencies that modern humans use for speech, they said. The tiny bones in the middle ear of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus showed modern human features that may be related to the evolution of language, palaeoanthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University in New York said. The similarity between the two species -- Australopithecu from 3.3 to 2.1 million years ago and Paranthropus from 1.8 million years ago -- points to a "deep and ancient origin" of this feature, Quam says. "This could be like bipedalism: a defining characteristic of hominins," he said in a university release Tuesday. Quam and his colleagues say they plan to use CT scans of the fossils and 3D virtual reconstruction of the ear anatomy to work out more precisely what the world sounded like to our distant ancestors.


*-- Online climate 'game' can help address greenhouse gas sources --*
PHOENIX - An online "game" could engage citizen scientists to help improve knowledge of the sources of greenhouse gases, Arizona State University scientists say. The online effort on a website called Ventus (Latin for wind) has a simple interface in which users enter basic information that will help climate scientists locate all the power plants around the world and quantify their carbon dioxide emissions, a university release said Wednesday. ASU researchers estimate there are as many as 30,000 power plants around the world burning fossil fuels. While a list of those facilities does exist, scientifically accurate information needed to map each power plant's location and carbon dioxide emissions does not. "Of all the fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the world, power plants account for almost half -- so a pretty big portion of the climate change problem is due to the production of electricity everywhere in the world," climate scientist Kevin Gurney said. "While you might imagine that we would know where they are and how much they're emitting, it turns out we don't. With the growth in countries such as China, India and Brazil, this lack of information poses challenges for both basic science and climate change solutions." Ventus participants who know the amount of CO2 emissions from a specific power plant have valuable information to contribute, the researchers said, and often can provide three other pieces of vital information: the location of the facility (within a few hundred yards,) the fuel used and the amount of electricity produced. "Ventus uses a Google Earth map which allows someone playing the game to drop pins on the power plants," said Darragh O'Keefe, the ASU research scientist who built the website. "Our logic is that for every power plant in the world, there are probably at least a dozen people who live near it, work at it, or know someone who works at it. "With the proliferation of phones and GPS, it makes it pretty easy to locate things."


*-- BlackBerry hoping to move away from ported Android apps --*
ORLANDO, Fla. - Blackberry says a fifth of its app catalog is made up of programs ported from Android -- and the Canadian smartphone maker's faithful aren't too happy about it. While most existing Android apps ported to run on devices running the company's BlackBerry 10 operating system work, they can't access all the major features of BlackBerry devices, the company acknowledged. "From a commercial perspective, users hate them," Alec Saunders, head of developer relations at BlackBerry, told CNET. "Our partners who have ported apps get dinged for them." Hoping to get its app library off to a flying start, BlackBerry allowed developers to port over their existing Android apps to quickly get on BlackBerry and test the waters. But it's not the ideal situation, Saunders said; while it allowed BlackBerry to quickly fill it app library, the company wants to concentrate on apps that are more innovative and can do more on a BlackBerry device. The approach seems to be working; whereas last year 47 percent of developers said they were likely to develop on BlackBerry 10, that number now stands at 88 percent, CNET reported.

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