February 13, 2012
Good Morning,
Scientists take a new look at what happened to our biological cousins, the Neanderthals, by means of "genetic legacy." Check out all the details to this interesting study in the second article.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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Tiny 'bubble' rockets could be medical aid SAN DIEGO - U.S. scientists say "microrockets" that can move through acidic environments such as the human stomach could have a variety of medical applications. Joseph Wang, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego, said such self-propelled nano- or micro-scale motors could have applications in targeted drug delivery or imaging in humans, or as a way to monitor industrial applications. However, he said, current versions of these small-scale motors are not self-propelled and require the addition of a fuel -- commonly hydrogen peroxide -- while other versions cannot withstand extreme environments such as the stomach, which is very acidic. The researchers, writing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, said their new, tubular microrocket can move itself without added fuels in very acidic conditions. Their microrocket spontaneously produces bubbles of hydrogen gas, which propels it forward in the same way gases spewing out of a rocket's motor nozzle can. The microrocket's interior is lined with zinc, which is biocompatible and leads to the generation of the hydrogen bubbles, they said. Wang's team has also developed a version with a magnetic layer, which enables them to guide the microrockets as they move forward.
Study: Neanderthals left a genetic legacyTEMPE, Ariz. - Neanderthals were not wiped out by modern human ancestors but more likely were integrated into the human gene pool thousands of years ago, U.S. researchers say. Responding to a growing ice age, Neanderthals and modern human ancestors expanded their territorial ranges across Asia and Europe to adapt to the changing environment and in the process encountered each other, Arizona State University researcher C. Michael Barton said. As cultural and climatic forces brought the two groups together, Barton said, the Neanderthals demise was due to a combination of influences including cultural changes and interbreeding, Barton said. As Neanderthals' and early humans' land-use patterns shifted during the ice age, computer modeling shows the two populations began to interact culturally and mate, leading to the "extinction" of one of the groups due to hybridization, a well-recognized phenomenon in conservation biology, an ASU release said. Neanderthals were limited to western Eurasia and usually it is the smaller population that becomes "extinct" in this way, the researchers said. Nevertheless, succeeding hybrid populations still carry genes from the regional group that disappeared, researchers said. This has been confirmed by genetic studies in modern populations carried out by Julien Riel-Salvatore of the University of Colorado, Denver. "Recent sequencing of ancient Neanderthal DNA indicates that Neanderthal genes make up from 1 to 4 percent of the genome of modern populations -- especially those of European descent," Riel-Salvatore said. "While they disappeared as a distinctive form of humanity, they live on in our genes."
NASA may cut planet exploration missionsWASHINGTON - NASA budget cuts could threaten the U.S. space agency's efforts to explore Mars and other planets using robot missions, U.S. scientists say. Scott Hubbard, the former leader of the National Atmospheric and Space Administration's Mars team, said reduced funding could set back planetary exploration considerably by delaying development of new technology, Florida Today reported. Hubbard now teaches at Stanford University. NASA plans to release its five-year budget plan Monday. "It is a tough year," John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University, told the newspaper. "A flat budget would be a success for NASA, and a more likely outcome is a modest cut." In addition to the universal problem of austere budgets in an era of lower revenues and growing deficits, NASA has its own financial constraints. The Obama administration is anxious to push forward with a replacement for the space shuttle, and the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2018 as a replacement for the Hubble, has been plagued by cost overruns. "My impressions are that the planetary science program may be in deep trouble," Hubbard said.
Satellites measure world glacier meltingBOULDER, Colo. - Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, U.S. researchers say. Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder said the measurements are important because the melting of the world's glaciers and ice caps due to global warming pose the greatest threat to sea level increases in the future. CU-Boulder physics Professor John Wahr, who helped lead the study, said the findings indicate the globe's melting glaciers are adding about 0.4 millimeters to sea levels annually. The researchers used satellite measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, a joint effort of NASA and Germany, and estimated the world's glaciers and ice caps had lost about 39 cubic miles of ice annually from 2003 to 2010. "This is the first time anyone has looked at all of the mass loss from all of Earth's glaciers and ice caps with GRACE," Wahr said in a CU-Boulder release Wednesday. "The Earth is losing an incredible amount of ice to the oceans annually, and these new results will help us answer important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet's cold regions are responding to global change." "The total amount of ice lost to Earth's oceans from 2003 to 2010 would cover the entire United States in about 1 and 1/2 feet of water," Wahr said.
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