Calif. marine biologist accused of feeding whale

Via www.ap.org

By Jason Dearen

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A marine biologist who runs popular whale-watching tours on California'sMonterey Bay has been indicted for violating federal laws that protect marine mammals, though her attorneys said her interactions with the creatures were scientific research.

Nancy Black, a marine scientist whose work has been featured on PBS, National Geographic and Animal Planet, was charged Wednesday with four violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

She was accused of feeding killer whales in 2005 during a research trip, and misleading investigators by editing video footage of her encounters with other whales during a whale watching trip, and then lying about it. All of the alleged incidents occurred within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, one of 13 ocean sanctuaries established in 1992.

Prosecutors say the charges were filed after an investigation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Department of Justice. Wyn Hornbuckle, a spokesman for the DOJ, declined to comment, as well as a spokesman for NOAA.

In addition to her scientific work, Black owns Monterey Bay Whale Watch and operates two commercial whale-watching vessels. Black has also worked with federal agencies on the study of whales, including the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, which is part of NOAA.

If she is found guilty of editing the video and then lying about it, Black could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a half million dollars in fines. Each of the feeding charges carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. While these are the maximum sentences allowable by law, courts generally do not impose the maximum, instead relying on guidance from the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

According to the indictment, Black was asked to provide video taken from her whale-watching boat during an October 2005 trip that investigators believe included an illegal encounter with a humpback whale. Whale-watching boats are supposed to stay at least 100 yards from the animals.

Black is accused of providing an edited version of the video that took out the humpback encounter.

Lawrence Biegel, one of Black's lawyers, said the videos in question are often edited and offered to whale watching customers as keepsakes of their day. He said Black provided an edited copy to federal investigators, not knowing they wanted the original.

"She was out whale-watching with a full complement of passengers and spotted a humpback whale. It was a friendly whale, which loves to come up close to a boat and breach and frolic," he said. "There's video of this, which she turned over, of this whale doing exactly that, literally going from one side of the boat to another."

Biegel said Black never fed the creatures during her research trips.

Black was working with federal marine scientists at the time, Biegel said, to study the feeding habits of the powerful sea creatures. Orcas sometimes come to Monterey Bay to feed on gray whale calves as they migrate north along the Pacific coast, Biegel said.

Biegel said Black had collected a piece of gray whale blubber that was floating in the sea, cut a hole so a rope could be fed through, and dropped it back into the ocean. The idea was to keep the blubber close to the boat so Black could use a pole camera to film the killer whales eating underwater, he said.

"In the specific incident in question, Ms. Black used an underwater camera and filmed the eating habits of killer whales who were feeding off free floating pieces of blubber from a gray whale that had been killed by a pack of killer whales," Biegel said.

"She was never hiding what she did or how she did it. In fact, she was acting with the knowledge of other marine mammal scientists, some of whom work for agencies of the federal government," he said. Biegel said Black had a permit granted by the federal government to conduct the research.

Prosecution of MMPA violations is not uncommon. In 2010 a recreational fisherman pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor violations after his boat struck two humpbacks in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Massachusetts. In 2008, four members of the Makah Tribe were sentenced to prison and probation for illegally killing a gray whale off the northwest coast of Washington.

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Qatar's next big purchase: a farming sector

Via www.reuters.com

By Martina Fuchs

DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar's energy resources have given it one of the world's highest per capita incomes, a futuristic urban skyline and enough clout to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. But its wealth may not be enough for the arid state to achieve an even more ambitious goal: becoming largely self-sufficient in food.

Like other oil-rich, water-poor Gulf states, Qatar has been investing in large areas of farmland overseas to ensure access to food supplies. The agricultural arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, Hassad Food, has bought land in Sudan and Australia, and has announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on agricultural projects in countries including Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and Ukraine.

But in contrast to the other Gulf states, Qatar also aims to produce most of its food domestically, by spending massively to boost crop yields and convert semi-desert into agricultural land.

Qatar's Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani issued a decree this year to organize the Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP), tackling "one of the most pressing challenges that Qatar is facing."

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NASA marks 2012 with twin probes in moon orbit

AP Photo/NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

News article from ap.org

By: Alicia Chang

OS ANGELES (AP) — NASA kicked off the new year with a pair of probes circling the moon in the latest mission to understand howEarth's closest neighbor formed.

There was no champagne popping in the mission control room at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the Grail spacecraft arrived back-to-back over the New Year's weekend, but several scientists and engineers celebrated by blowing noisemakers.

"It's a really good feeling to have not one but two of our twins in orbit," project manager David Lehman said Sunday after the mission was deemed successful.

The action began on New Year's Eve when Grail-A swung over the south pole, fired its engine and braked into orbit around the moon. Not to be outdone, its twin Grail-B executed the same maneuvers on New Year's Day.

The arrivals capped a roundabout journey spanning 3 1/2 months and covering 2 1/2 million miles.

The moon has long been an object of fascination. Galileo spotted mountains and craters when he peered at it through a telescope. Poets and songwriters looked to the moon as a muse.

Even governments wanted a piece of the moon. Since the dawn of the Space Age, more than 100 missions launched by the United States, Soviet Union, Japan, China and India have targeted Earth's companion. NASA flew six Apollo missions that landed twelve men on the lunar surface and brought back more than 800 pounds of rock and soil samples.

Despite all the attention, the moon remains mysterious. Mission chief scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said researchers know more about Mars, which is farther away from the Earth, than the moon.

One of the enduring puzzles is its lopsided shape with the far side more hilly than the side that Earth sees. Research published earlier this year suggested that our planet once had two moons that crashed early in the solar system's history and created the moon that graces the sky today.

Scientists expect to learn more about how the celestial body formed using Grail's gravity measurements that will indicate what's below the surface.

Since the washing machine-size Grail probes — short for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory — were squeezed on a small rocket to save on costs, it lengthened the trip and took them 30 times longer to reach the moon than the Apollo astronauts, who took a direct three-day flight.

Previous spacecraft have attempted to study the moon's gravity — about one-sixth Earth's pull — with mixed success. Grail was expected to give scientists the most detailed maps of the moon's uneven gravitational field and insight into its interior down to the core.

Data collection won't begin until March after the near-identical spacecraft refine their positions and are circling just 34 miles above the surface. While scientists focus on gravity, middle school students will get the chance to take their own pictures of the moon using cameras aboard the probes as part of a project headed by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

There's already chatter about trying to extend the $496 million mission, which was slated to end before the partial lunar eclipse in June. Scientists initially did not think the solar-powered probes would survive that long, but changed their minds during the long cruise to the moon after getting new data.

Researchers expect Grail to return a plethora of data, but that information won't be a guide to manned lunar missions anytime soon. The Obama administration last year scrapped a plan to return astronauts to the lunar surface in favor of landing on an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars.

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Iran 'tests 1st nuclear fuel rod from own uranium'

News article from afp.com

By: afp news

Iran said on Sunday that its scientists have "tested the first nuclear fuel rod produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country," the website of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation said.

"After going through physical checks, it was inserted into the core of the Tehran research reactor in order to study how well it works," the website added.

Iran said last month that it planned to insert domestically produced uranium fuel into the Tehran research reactor, which produces isotopes for medical purposes and currently runs on a nearly depleted stock of nuclear plates bought from Argentina in 1993.

The Tehran reactor requires uranium enriched to 20 percent, a far higher level than that needed for Iran's Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, which uses Russian fuel that is returned when spent.

The atomic energy organisation did not specify the level of enrichment of the trial fuel rod but Iran's programme to enrich uranium to the higher level has been at the centre of growing Western concerns about the goals of its nuclear programme.

Western governments have expressed fears that Iran's real aim is to develop a capability to enrich uranium to the 90 percent level necessary for a nuclear bomb, an ambition Tehran strongly denies.

Uranium enriched to 20 percent level is normally manufactured into plate, not rod, form for use as fuel.

Western governments nations have expressed scepticism that Iran has the technology to produce plates.

Iran already faces four sets of UN sanctions and additional unilateral Western sanctions imposed over its refusal to heed repeated ultimatums to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

Ther announcement of the fuel rod test came a day after US President Barack Obama signed into law tough new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and financial sector.

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Strong earthquake jolts Japan, no tsunami warning

News article from reuters.com

By: Reuters

(Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 jolted eastern and northeastern Japan on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damages and no tsunami warning was issued.

The earthquake measured 4 in central Tokyo, Fukushima and their surrounding areas on the Japanese intensity scale, which measures ground motion, according to Japan Meteorological Agency, which uses a different measuring system than the U.S. Geological Survey.

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'Sendong' death toll in Philippines may reach 3,000

News article from Asia News Network

By: Bobby Lagsa and Cai Panlilio in Manila

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN)- It's going to be "Silent Night" on Christmas Eve for thousands of people who lost their loved ones in the worst storm to hit the country this year.

Many households in the flood-ravaged cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan are grieving. There will be no fireworks, not even firecrackers there. Instead, candles will be lit in houses where power has yet to be restored, and in funeral wakes.

For the first time since Tropical Storm "Sendong" struck on Dec. 16, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) admitted that the missing may be more than the 49 reported to President Aquino on his trip to the disaster zone on Tuesday-four days after the storm struck.

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First Earth-sized planets found beyond solar system

News article from Reuters

By Irene Klotz

(An artist’s rendered photo of Keppler-20e – Photo by NASA/Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronomers have found a pair of Earth-sized planets orbiting a star similar to the sun, though neither are believed to be suitable for life, scientists on NASA's Kepler telescope team said on Tuesday.

The discovery follows confirmation earlier this month of a super-Earth sized planet, called Kepler-22b, that circles the right distance from its parent star for liquid water to exist on its surface. Water is believed to be a key ingredient for life.

"Kepler-22b has the right temperature, but it is too big. (The planets) we're announcing today are just the right size, but too hot," astronomer David Charbonneau with Harvard University, told reporters during a conference call.

"But you can bet that the hunt is on to find a planet that combines the best of both worlds, a true Earth twin," he said.

The newly discovered planets, called Kepler-20e and 20f, have at least three gas-giant siblings, one of the larger planetary systems found to date.

But the family is nothing like our solar system, where rocky worlds like Venus, Earth and Mars are grouped together closer in toward the sun while gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are segregated in the outer regions.

The two Earth-like and three Neptune-sized planets in the Kepler-20 family are interspersed and all orbit closer to the parent star than our solar system's innermost planet, Mercury.

"Rocky planets and gas giants happily mingle together. This is the first time we've seen anything like this," Charbonneau said.

Kepler-20e and 20f, which are believed to be too hot for liquid water, probably are not habitable - at least not today.

"If Kepler-20f was formed with water, which I think is likely, then it could have held on to its water for several billions of years ," said astronomer Linda Elkins-Tanton with the Carnegie Institute in Washington D.C.

"And that means that this planet could have been habitable in the past for a long period," she said.

The system is located about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

Light travels at about 299,337 km per second.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Sandra Maler)

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Details of lab-made bird flu won't be revealed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government paid scientists to figure out how the deadly bird flu virus might mutate to become a bigger threat to people — and two labs succeeded in creating new strains that are easier to spread.

On Tuesday, federal officials took the unprecedented step of asking those scientists not to publicize all the details of how they did it.

The worry: That this research with lots of potential to help the public might also be hijacked by would-be bioterrorists. The labs found that it appears easier than scientists had thought for the so-called H5N1 bird flu to evolve in a way that lets it spread easily between at least some mammals.

"It wasn't an easy decision," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health, which funded the original research.

The scary-sounding viruses are locked in high-security labs as researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin-Madison prepare to publish their findings in leading scientific journals. That's the way scientists share their work so that their colleagues can build on it, perhaps creating better ways to monitor bird flu in the wild, for example.

But biosecurity advisers to the government recommended that the journals Science and Nature publish only the general discoveries, not the full blueprint for these man-made strains. Tuesday, the government announced that it agreed and made the request.

In statements, the two research teams say they're making some changes, if reluctantly. The journals are mulling what to do, and the government didn't say precisely what should be left out.

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Scientists: Faster-than-light finding still holds

BY: Frank Jordans

GENEVA (AP) -- The chances have risen that Einstein was wrong about a fundamental law of the universe.

Scientists at the world's biggest physics lab said Friday they have ruled out one possible error that could have distorted their startling measurements that appeared to show particles traveling faster than light.

Many physicists reacted with skepticism in September when measurements by French and Italian researchers seemed to show subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research said more precise testing has now confirmed the accuracy of at least one part of the experiment.

"One key test was to repeat the measurement with very short beam pulses," the Geneva-based organization, known by its French acronym CERN, said in a statement.

The test allowed scientists to check if the starting time for the neutrinos was being measured correctly before they were fired 454 miles (730 kilometers) underground from Geneva to a lab in Italy.

The results matched those from the previous test, "ruling out one potential source of systematic error," said CERN.

Still, scientists stressed that only independent measurements by labs elsewhere would allow them to declare that the results of their experiment were a genuine finding.

"A measurement so delicate and carrying a profound implication on physics requires an extraordinary level of scrutiny," said Fernando Ferroni, president of Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics. "The positive outcome of the test makes us more confident in the result, although a final word can only be said by analogous measurements performed elsewhere in the world."

According to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity, nothing is meant to be able to go faster than the speed of light - 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).

But the researchers said in September that their neutrinos traveled 60 nanoseconds faster, when the margin of error in their experiment allowed for just 10 nanoseconds. A nanosecond is one-billionth of a second.

via Winston-Salem Journal 

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South Korean Scientists made Glowing Dog

Seoul - Research team in Seoul National University have created a glowing dog using cloning methods that could help find cures in human diseases and illnesses according to Yonhap News


The South Korean scientists said that the genetically modified female beagle - named Tegon and was born in 2009 has been found glowing with a green fluorescent color when put under an ultraviolet light after giving doxycycline antibiotic. 


The researchers said that the ability of the dog to glow can be turn on and off by adding the drug to its food.


"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.

He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005.

The scientist said that because there are 268 illnesses that humans and dogs have in common, creating dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid treatment methods for diseases that afflict humans.

The latest discovery published in 'Genesis', an international journal, took four years of research with roughly 3.2 billion won ($3 million) spent to make the dog and conduct the necessary verification tests, Yonhap said. — Reuters


from gmanews.tv


------
new breakthrough!
it will be a big help if they would find ways to cure incurable human diseases but not make a human glow. That would be an advance Halloween costume.

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Computer Program Learns to Sort Galaxies Like a Human

A computer algorithm modeled after the human brain has learned how to recognize different galaxy types ranging from spiral to elliptical, and can now help flesh-and-blood stargazers with the daunting task of classifying billions of galaxies.

The machine-learning codes have proven reliable enough to agree with human classifications of galaxies 90 percent of the time, according to scientists at University College London and the University of Cambridge in the UK.

That should help astronomers keep up with a deluge of galaxy imagery from observational projects such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Galaxy Zoo. The billions of galaxies in the known universe


 include a wide range of shapes such as spiral, elliptical, barred and irregular.

"Next generation telescopes now under construction will image hundreds of millions and even billions of galaxies over the coming decade," said Manda Banerji, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge. "The numbers are overwhelming and every image cannot viably be studied by the human eye."

Classifying the types of galaxies represents the first step toward understanding the origin and evolution ofgalaxies.

More than 250,000 people have helped astronomers classify 60 million galaxies in the online Galaxy Zoo project. Astronomers then used the Galaxy Zoo classifications to train their computer algorithm, known as an artificial neural network, as part of the process for learning to recognize galaxy types.

The artificial neural network can analyze the complex relationships between different variables such as shape, size and color of astrophysical objects, and then come up with the appropriate galaxy type. That process mimics the biological neural network found in living creatures.

Astronomers first trained the computer algorithm on 75,000 astrophysical objects from the Sloan Digital SkySurvey included in the Galaxy Zoo project, before testing its abilities in classifying 1 million objects. They also fiddled with the weighted parameters that the algorithm used so that they could finally achieve the 90 percent success rate.

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A step to artificial life: Manmade DNA powers cell

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer – Thu May 20, 7:54 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by manmade DNA. While such work can evoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.

Is it really an artificial life form?

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