In a word: #Science (Scientific research from #Wisconsin, #Indiana, #Ohio, and #NewJersey)
The next excerpt in my continuing series on Daily Kos highlighting the creation and discovery of knowledge by the public employees at the major public research institutions in the states where public employees and their unions are under siege from recently elected Republican governors. I began this series two weeks ago highlighting research performed at the University of Wisconsin. Last week, I added Indiana and Ohio. This week, I added New Jersey, along with a bonus article from Florida.
Astronomy/Space
Indiana University: STAR TRAK
March 1, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Mercury will make its best evening appearance of the year in March. It will become visible to the unaided eye during the second week of the month about 40 minutes after sunset, almost directly below much brighter Jupiter.
Each night Mercury will be closer to Jupiter, making the smaller planet especially easy to locate. Observers in North America will see the two planets closest together on March 15, about 2 degrees apart with Mercury slightly higher. Around the same time, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will begin orbiting Mercury. During the third week, as Jupiter sinks into the sunset, Mercury will continue to appear higher above the western horizon, reaching its greatest separation from the sun on March 22. By month's end it will still set an hour after the sun, but by then it will be hard to locate even with binoculars.
Jupiter will be the only planet visible as the evening sky darkens at the beginning of the month, appearing low in the west. Before month's end, it will have disappeared into the afterglow of sunset.
Other astronomical phenomena described at the link.
Evolution/Paleontology
Rutgers University: What do Red Algae and Green Algae Have in Common?
About half the genes in their genomes -- and that's significant for biofuels research
For Debashish Bhattacharya, the knowledge that half the oxygen on Earth is generated by algae through photosynthesis begs an important evolutionary question: How did algae come to be such industrious carbon-dioxide-consuming, sugar-and-oxygen producing factories? Did each of the two major kinds of algae, red and green, evolve their photosynthetic abilities separately? Or did they have a common ancestor?
Red algae are mostly aquatic and include such familiar organisms as sushi wrap and are the sources of agar and carrageenan. Green algae are terrestrial, and are genetically related to all land plants.
Thanks to the recent research of Bhattacharya and his co-authors, published in the journal Current Biology, it appears likely that red and green algae do have a common ancestor, since they share about half the genes in their their genomes. Scientists had long thought this must be so, but had little evidence to back up their hunch, because red algae genomes are usually very large, and their sequencing was such a long, involved, expensive process.
Biodiversity
University of Wisconsin: Wisconsin boaters, anglers doing more to halt spread of invasives
March 1, 2011
Wisconsin boaters and anglers seem to be doing a better job of following rules aimed at curbing the spread of aquatic invasive species, according to the results of UW-Madison surveys taken in 2009 and 2010.
Researchers found that 87 percent of boaters and anglers surveyed in 2010 said they removed plants from their boat before leaving the landing, compared to 76 percent in 2009. Removing plants can help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive plants such as Eurasian water milfoil and curly-leaf pondweed to new, uninfected lakes.
The researchers also found more compliance with rules aimed at preventing the spread of diseases such as viral hemorrhagic septicemia and other aquatic invasives. In 2010, 90 percent of anglers drained the water from their boats (up from 81 percent in 2009), while 75 percent did not move live fish (up from 69 percent), and 47 percent did not add water to their bait containers (up from 35 percent).
Biotechnology/Health
Indiana University: Biologist Innes a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
March 3, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Roger Innes, chair of the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Biology, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. It is a major honor for scientists who study bacteria and viruses.
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"Roger and the members of his lab have made major contributions to the genetic and biochemical basis of disease resistance in plants and in particular to bacterial pathogens," said biology colleague Yves Brun, himself a fellow of the academy. "Roger was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science earlier this year. This has been quite a good year for Roger in terms of recognition of his research."
Indiana University: Discovery of source of glycogen "manufacturing" errors sheds light on fatal disease
March 1, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University scientists have solved a perplexing mystery regarding one of the body's main energy storage molecules, in the process shedding light on a possible route to treatment of a rare but deadly disease in teenagers.
The disease occurs when a genetic mutation causes excessive amounts of phosphate to build up in glycogen. Glycogen is a chain-like molecule the body uses to temporarily store glucose when it's not needed to provide energy for cellular activities. The excess phosphate causes unnatural glycogen structures to appear in the body, including the brain, resulting in progressive neurological problems.
In a paper in the March 2, 2011 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, a research team led by Peter J. Roach, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the IU School of Medicine, has identified where the extra phosphate comes from, and how it is chemically linked to the glycogen molecules. The findings, Roach said, suggest a possibility for treating the disease -- stopping the body from producing glycogen.
Purdue University: Stigma weighs heavily on obese people, contributing to greater health problems
March 3, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The discrimination that obese people feel, whether it is poor service at a restaurant or being treated differently in the workplace, may have a direct impact on their physical health, according to new research from Purdue University.
"Obesity is a physiological issue, but when people have negative interactions in their social world - including a sense of being discriminated against - it can make matters worse and contribute to a person's declining physical health," said Markus H. Schafer, the doctoral student in sociology and gerontology who led the study. "We found that around a third of the severely obese people in the United States report facing some form of discriminatory experience, and the experience of weight discrimination plays into people's own perspective about their weight. It seems that many people are internalizing the prejudice and stigma they feel, and it contributes to stress, which ultimately affects their health."
Overweight and obesity are measured by the body mass index scale, which accounts for height, weight and gender. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 34 percent of U.S. adults are overweight and another 34 percent are obese. Being overweight is a predisposition for obesity, which puts people at risk for cancers, heart disease, diabetes and other complications and quality of life issues.
The Ohio State University: STUDY: DRUG COULD HELP PRESERVE BRAIN FUNCTION AFTER CARDIAC ARREST
March 1, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio - An experimental drug that targets a brain system that controls inflammation might help preserve neurological function in people who survive sudden cardiac arrest, new research suggests.
Survival rates for sudden cardiac arrest are low, but recent medical advancements have improved the chances for recovery. Many people who do survive suffer a range of disorders that relate to neurological deficits caused by loss of blood flow to the brain when their heart stops.
The researchers, led by a team at Ohio State University, believe these neurological problems might relate to inflammation and brain-cell death. The study revealed how the brain is damaged during cardiac arrest, as well as how a drug might counter those effects.
The Ohio State University: RESEARCH OPENS DOOR TO VACCINES THAT CAN CIRCUMVENT MATERNAL ANTIBODIES
February 25, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research that reveals how maternal antibodies block an immune response to the measles virus is a first step toward improving current childhood vaccination practices, scientists say.
Maternal antibodies are passed to fetuses during pregnancy and to newborns in their mothers’ milk. The antibodies protect infants against disease in the first months of life, but that protection comes at a cost: Their presence also interferes with the generation of a natural immune response to vaccination. As a result, most babies receive measles immunizations at the age of 12 to 15 months, when maternal antibodies are gone.
Years of studies have advanced the theory that maternal antibodies shield the measles virus so that cells that generate an immune response can’t see the pathogen. If that were the case, little could be done to intervene.
Climate/Environment
University of Wisconsin: Ecological adaptation likely to influence impacts of climate change
March 1, 2011
by Jill Sakai
Animals' capacity to adapt is a factor in how they are likely to respond to changing climate conditions.
This conclusion of a new study published Mar. 2 in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy B is not especially surprising, says author Brandon Barton, but confirms the importance of accounting for local adaptation when determining the likely ecological effects of climate change.
The work shows that the ability of the top predator in a well-studied food web to adapt to local temperatures can preserve the ways the species in the web influence one another across a range of climate conditions. Barton, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed the work while a graduate student at Yale University.
Indiana University: Rising CO2 is causing plants to release less water to the atmosphere, researchers say
March 3, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, report scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Utrecht University in the Netherlands in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (now online).
In a separate paper, also to be published by PNAS, many of the same scientists describe a model they devised that predicts doubling today's carbon dioxide levels will dramatically reduce the amount of water released by plants.
Purdue University: New scientific field will study ecological importance of sounds
March 1, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University researcher is leading an effort to create a new scientific field that will use sound as a way to understand the ecological characteristics of a landscape and to reconnect people with the importance of natural sounds.
Soundscape ecology, as it's being called, will focus on what sounds can tell people about an area. Bryan Pijanowski, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources and lead author of a paper outlining the field in the journal BioScience, said natural sound could be used like a canary in a coal mine. Sound could be a critical first indicator of environmental changes.
Pijanowski said sound could be used to detect early changes in climate, weather patterns, the presence of pollution or other alterations to a landscape.
Geology
University of Florida via RedOrbit: UF Pine lsland Pollen Study Leads To Revision Of State's Ancient Geography
Posted on: Wednesday, 2 March 2011, 20:43 CST
A new University of Florida study of 45-million-year-old pollen from Pine Island west of Fort Myers has led to a new understanding of the state's geologic history, showing Florida could be 10 million to 15 million years older than previously believed.
The discovery of land in Florida during the early Eocene opens the possibility for researchers to explore the existence of land animals at that time, including their adaptation, evolution and dispersal until the present.
Florida Museum of Natural History vertebrate paleontologist Jonathan Bloch, who was not involved in the current study, said he is especially interested in the finding and future related research.
"As a paleontologist who studies the evolution of mammals, my first question is 'OK, if there was land here at that time, what kinds of animals lived here?' " Bloch said. "Most of our current understanding of the evolution of early mammals comes from fossils discovered out west."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Rutgers University: Learning from Volcanic Eruptions 200 Million Years Ago
Scientists took samples in New Jersey for latest research
Twenty thousand years of massive volcanic eruptions doubled the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere 200 million years ago, according to research by Rutgers geologists published recently in the journal Science.
Morgan Schaller, Jim Wright and Dennis Kent report that the level of atmospheric CO2 went from about 2,000 parts per million to 4,000 parts per million and then shrank back to pre-eruption levels over the next 300,000 years. This implies that events of this scale have the potential to rapidly double the concentration of CO2 in earth’s atmosphere. Their work, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, was based on measurements on cores taken from sites in northeastern New Jersey. Schaller is a PhD student, Wright an associate professor and Kent a professor of earth and planetary sciences in Rutgers’ School of Arts and Sciences.
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“You see these big eruptions throughout Earth’s history,” says Schaller. “But it’s always been unclear what they can do to the atmosphere. It turns out, they may do a lot.”
Psychology/Behavior
Rutgers University: Professor Gyorgy Buzsaki Is Co-Winner of Major European “Brain Prize”
Buzsaki shares prize of one million Euros with two other neuroscientists from his native Hungary
March 04, 2011
NEWARK, NJ --Rutgers Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, Dr. Gyorgy Buzsaki, has received the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation’s award, “The Brain Prize,” along with two other Hungarian scientists, Tamas Freund and Peter Somogyi. The prize winners were announced on March 3 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The award was given to the three scientists for “their wide-ranging, technically and conceptually brilliant research on the functional organization of neuronal circuits in the cerebral cortex, especially in the hippocampus, a region that is crucial for certain forms of memory.” According to the Foundation’s press release, “although the work of the three researchers has been aimed at fundamental understanding of brain function, it is illuminating the causes and symptoms of a variety of clinical conditions, from epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease to anxiety and dementia. It has set the gold standard for correlating structure and function, from molecules to behaviour.”
Chemistry
University of Wisconsin: Chemist awarded grant to develop ‘green chemistry’ for pharmaceutical industry
Feb. 28, 2011
by David Tenenbaum
A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of chemistry has received a grant to develop "green" techniques to produce compounds for the pharmaceutical industry. Shannon Stahl says his particular challenge is to find ways to use air as an environmentally benign oxidant for pharmaceutical synthesis, by developing catalysts composed of earth-abundant metal catalysts, such as copper, iron and vanadium.
"Nearly all organic compounds will react with air, but usually they just undergo combustion to form carbon dioxide," he says, so chemical manufacturers need to use catalysts to control chemical reactions between organic molecules and oxygen gas. Stahl's focus will be the oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds. This chemical reaction is a commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry, but it often requires the use of toxic or wasteful reagents.
Purdue University: New growth inhibitors more effective in plants, less toxic to people
March 2, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University scientist and researchers in Japan have produced a new class of improved plant growth regulators that are expected to be less toxic to humans.
Angus Murphy, a professor of horticulture, said the growth inhibitors block the transport of auxin, a plant hormone that, when transported throughout the plant, controls growth processes. Current growth regulators that inhibit auxin transport are inefficient because they also have hormonelike activity or affect other important plant processes. Current growth inhibitors also are often toxic.
Growth regulators are important in ornamental plants and horticultural crops that would require labor-intensive manipulation and pruning. The inhibitors are used to keep plants a desired size and shape and control fruit formation.
Energy
University of Wisconsin: Curiosities: Why, when I see wind generators on a windy day, are some rotating and others not?
Feb. 28, 2011
There are several possible reasons why a turbine may be still even when the wind is blowing, says Giri Venkataramanan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison. The turbine may be down for reasons such as maintenance or repair.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
University of Wisconsin: UW-Madison conference looks at Obama education agenda
March 3, 2011
by Kerry Hill
Scholars from a range of disciplines at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will dissect and discuss the Obama administration's education agenda during a daylong conference sponsored by the Department of Educational Policy Studies (EPS) in the UW-Madison School of Education.
The conference, "The Obama Education Agenda: Principles, Policies and Prospects," will be held on Wednesday, March 9, from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., in the Wisconsin Idea Room (Room 159) of the Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall on the UW-Madison campus. All sessions are open to the public.
"President Obama, to the surprise of many, has followed President Bush's lead in supporting test-based and market accountability - and his Race to the Top and related initiatives have produced massive changes," says conference co-chair Douglas Harris, associate professor of educational policy and public affairs.
"The Obama administration has also expressed a desire to revitalize and reinvent international education policy and public diplomacy, but recent efforts are now threatened by renewed budget cuts and partisan conflicts," says co-chair Mark Johnson, assistant professor of educational policy studies.
Rutgers University: Rutgers-Camden to Host NJ/PA Sustainability Symposium on March 31
March 02, 2011
CAMDEN - A symposium that will explore how regional businesses, hospitals, municipalities, and universities can engage and execute their sustainability plans will be held at the Rutgers-Camden Campus during 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, March 31.
The NJ/PA Sustainability Symposium is sponsored by the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, Brandywine Realty Trust, and the Cherry Hill-based law firm of Flaster/Greenberg.
The comprehensive symposium will focus on the latest in regional planning, funding opportunities, and community involvement while highlighting regional cutting-edge technological advances in sustainability. Those advances include: New Jersey’s leadership role in solar energy, wind power off the Jersey shore, electricity deregulation in Pennsylvania, and recent advances in waste management and recycling.
Science Education
University of Wisconsin: Discovery Town Center debuts Saturday Science Series for families
March 3, 2011
by Janet Kelly
The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Town Center will debut a new monthly series of free science exploration and education programs aimed at kids and families this Saturday March 5. Its first program, Leopold Discovery Day, invites learner of all ages to celebrate the life and discoveries of legendary University of Wisconsin-Madison environmentalist Aldo Leopold, known as the "father of wildlife management."
Presented by the Aldo Leopold Nature Center from 10 a.m. to noon, visitors can take part in a scavenger hunt in the Town Center, which includes an indoor Mesozoic-era forest, fossils in the floor and interactive displays and art. Many hands-on activities will be based on some of the pioneering naturalist's favorite activities - fishing, identifying trees and animal tracks, and phenology, the study of season and climate changes on plants and animals.
University of Wisconsin: UW-Madison trio named Leopold Leadership Fellows
Feb. 28, 2011
Three University of Wisconsin-Madison professors are among only 20 academics from throughout North America chosen this year to participate in a prestigious environmental leadership and communications training program.
Tracey Holloway, Jake Vander Zanden and Jack Williams have been awarded Leopold Leadership Fellowships for 2011. They will participate in two weeklong training sessions, one in June and one in September, on working with policymakers, journalists, business leaders and communities confronting complex decisions about sustainability and the environment. The sessions include mock media interviews and meetings with policymakers in Washington, D.C.
Purdue University: Egyptian prime minister spent 7 years at Purdue
March 3, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Essam Abdel-Aziz Sharaf, the new prime minister of Egypt, is remembered as a good and honest man by the Purdue University civil engineering professor who mentored him for seven years.
Sharaf came to Purdue in 1978. He earned master's and doctorate degrees in civil engineering and did post-doctoral work at Purdue.
Kumares Sinha, the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, and the late E.J. Yoder were Sharaf's master's advisers. Sinha also was his doctoral adviser, and Sharaf did his post-doctoral work for Sinha.
Sharaf was last on campus in 2006, when he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni award. "He brought his whole family with him," Sinha said. "And he told his three sons that it all started at Purdue."
And now, the badge for this month.
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