Gizmorama - March 4, 2013

Good Morning,

Apparently, time is the old way to age wine. The new way is to submerge the bottles on the sea floor. So, I guess we were doing it wrong this whole time?

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

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Rare asteroid sporting 'tail' spotted --*
MADRID - Asteroids, unlike comets, are seldom seen sporting a tail as they orbit the sun, but Spanish astronomers say they've observed one of these rare exceptions. Using a telescope in the Canary Islands, they spotted an asteroid dubbed P/2012 F5 that displayed a trail like that of comets. Its emission of dust or gas may have been caused by internal rupture or collision with another asteroid, a release from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology reported Wednesday. "Our models indicate that [the trail] was caused by an impulsive short-lived event lasting just a few hours around the July 1st, 2011, with an uncertainty of 20 days," Fernando Moreno, researcher at the Astrophysics Institute of Andalusia said. Telescope images reveal "a fine and elongated dust structure that coincides exactly with the synchrone [timing] of that day," Moreno said. "It could have arisen from collision with another asteroid or rather a rotational rupture" of material gradually breaking free after partial fragmentation of the asteroid, the researchers said. The said they estimate the asteroid has a radius of between 300 and 450 feet and the dust mass emitted is about half a million tons.


*-- Study: Brain 'conducts' human speech --*
SAN FRANCISCO - U.S. researchers say the neurological basis of speech motor control lies in tiny brain regions that control the lips, jaw, tongue and larynx as people speak. A team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, said identifying those brain areas has potential implications for developing computer-brain interfaces for artificial speech communication and for the treatment of speech disorders. Speech is an ability unique to humans among living creatures but is poorly understood, they said. "Speaking is so fundamental to who we are as humans -- nearly all of us learn to speak," Edward Chang of the university's Center for Integrative Neuroscience said. "But it's probably the most complex motor activity we do." Scientists have not previously understood how the movements of distinct "articulators" -- the lips, tongue, jaw and larynx -- are precisely coordinated in the brain. Chang and colleagues recorded electrical activity directly from the brains of three people undergoing brain surgery to determine the spatial organization of the "speech sensorimotor cortex," creating a map of which parts of the brain control which parts of the vocal track. This cortical area has a hierarchical and cyclical structure that exerts a split-second, symphony-like control over the tongue, jaw, larynx and lips, they found. Speaking demands well-timed action of several various brain regions within the speech sensorimotor cortex, like musicians in a symphony orchestra having to time their playing to each other, they said.


*-- Wine to be aged on the sea floor --*
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A California winery says it's trying out a new way to age its wine -- not in a warehouse but submerged on the sea floor. Napa Valley-based Mira Winery said it thinks aging 48 bottles of its 2009 Cabernet in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor could enhance its taste. Winery officials said they were inspired to try the experiment by wine recovered from shipwrecks that has demonstrated unique flavors, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. "The ocean has similar ideal elements that impact aging -- temperature, pressure, humidity, pressure, motion, light or lack thereof and oxygen," Gustavo Gonzalez, a Mira Winery winemaker, said in a statement. "Is there something just as impactful and interesting in aquaoir as there is about terroir? We are going to try and find out." Terroir refers to the special characteristics geography, geology and climate of a certain place can give to wine grapes. The bottles of wine have been put into cages and submerged to the sea floor where it will remain for three months, the winery said. When it is brought to the surface, wine tasters will compare the vintage to an identical batch aged conventionally, it said.

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